Cloning

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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