Cloning, Expression and Biological Activity of VEGI₁₅₁, a Novel Vascular Endothelial Cell Growth Inhibitor

WANG Lu, PAN Wei, ZHU Fen-Lu, JIAO Bing-Hua1, LOU Yong-Hua¹, XIAO Yang¹, QI Zhong-Tian^*
( Department of Microbiology, ¹Department of Heath & Toxicology, School of Basic Medicine, Second Military Medical University, Shanghai 200433, China )

Abstract    VEGI(vascular endothelial cell growth inhibitor) is a novel cytokine which belongs to the TNF super-family. In this study, the VEGI gene from ECV304 cells was cloned. A truncated form of VEGI, where 23 amino acids from N-terminal were deleted and named VEGI₁₅₁, was expressed in E.coli with 25.5% of expression rate. The purity of VEGI₁₅₁ reached 92.5% after purification. VEGI₁₅₁ showed significant inhibitory effect on endothelial cells. IC₅₀ of VEGI₁₅₁ was 10 mg/L at 24 h. At the concentration of 0.613 mg/L, VEGI₁₅₁ induced apoptosis of endothelial cells within 36 h. However, neither stimulatory effect nor inhibitory effect of VEGI₁₅₁ was detected on tumor cells(A549，HepG2，Hela)cultured in vitro. These results suggest that endothelial cells was the main target cells of VEGI₁₅₁. Our findings indicate that VEGI₁₅₁ is a potential therapeutic drug on angiogenic disease and cancer.
Key words    VEGI；gene cloning；expression；endothelial cell；biological activity

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