Construction of eukaryotic expression vector of human arresten gene and its secreted expression in HEK 293 cells

The eukaryotic expression vector of human arresten gene was constructed and its secretive expression human embryonic kidney (HEK 293) cells was detected. Human arresten gene was amplified from recombinant plasmid pGEM-Arr by polymerase chain reaction (PCR), and then digested with restriction endonucleases BamH I and EcoR I. The target fragment was inserted into the BamH I and EcoR I restriction sites of eukaryotic expression vector pSecTag2 to construct pST-AT. Restriction analysis and DNA sequencing indicated that the arresten gene was successfully inserted into pSecTag2. The recombinant plasmid was subsequently transfected into HEK 293 cells with LipofectAMINETM2000 Reagent, and the expression of the target gene was detected. RTPCR revealed that the mRNA of the target gene was transcribed in the transfected HEK 293 cells. Western Blot analysis verified that the recombinant protein in supernatants was correct. The supernatants of transfected cells were prepared, and 3-(4,5)-dimethylthiahiazo (-z-y1)-3,5-di-phenytetrazoliumromide (MTT) assay was carried out to assess their effect on the proliferation of human umbilical vein endothelial cells, which showed that the recombinant protein could significantly suppress the proliferation of human umbilical vein endothelial cells in vitro. These results provided a solid foundation to explore the usage of arresten in tumor anti-angiogenic gene therapy. © Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag GmbH 2009.