Expression of active human interleukin-6 in transgenic tobacco

Abstract

To develop a new host system for the production of human interleukin-6 (ILr6)9 transgenic tobacco plant was developed. After removing the DNA fragment for most of the signal peptide, the IL-6 gene was Knked to cauliflower mosaic virus 35 S promoter and nopaline synthase terminator. Agrobacterium-meA^tGd transformation and in vitro regeneration resulted in transgenic tobacco plants carrying and expressing the recombinant human II，6 gene. The size of transcripts corresponding to the northern band was about 1.2 kb and the western bands appeared at about 21 kDa. In vitro assay for B9 cell proliferation activity with the II，6 protein produced in the transgenic tobacco plants showed known specific activity, and the activity was specifically neutralized by the anti-IL-6 antibody.