Identifying parameters to improve the reproducibility of transient gene expression in High Five cells

PLoS One. 2019 Jun 6;14(6):e0217878. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0217878. eCollection 2019.

Abstract

Virus-free, transient gene expression (TGE) in High Five cells was recently presented as an efficient protein production method. However, published TGE protocols have not been standardized to a general protocol. Therefore, reproducibility and implementation of the method in other labs remains difficult. The aim of this study is to analyse the parameters determining the reproducibility of the TGE in insect cells. Here, we identified that using linear 40 kDa PEI instead of 25 kDa PEI was one of the most important aspects to improve TGE. Furthermore, DNA amount, DNA:PEI ratio, growth phase of the cells before transfection, passage number, the origin of the High-Five cell isolates and the type of cultivation medium were considered. Interestingly, a correlation of the passage number to the DNA content of single cells (ploidy) and to the transfection efficacy could be shown. The optimal conditions for critical parameters were used to establish a robust TGE method. Finally, we compared the achieved product yields in High Five cells using our improved TGE method with both the baculoviral expression system and TGE in the mammalian HEK293-6E cell line. In conclusion, the presented robust TGE protocol in High Five cells is easy to establish and produces ample amounts of high-quality recombinant protein, bridging the gap in expression level of this method to the well-established mammalian TGE in HEK293 cells as well as to the baculoviral expression vector system (BEVS).

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Cell Survival
  • Gene Expression*
  • Green Fluorescent Proteins / metabolism
  • HEK293 Cells
  • Humans
  • Molecular Weight
  • Polyethyleneimine / chemistry
  • Polyploidy
  • Recombinant Proteins / biosynthesis
  • Reproducibility of Results
  • Temperature
  • Transfection

Substances

  • Recombinant Proteins
  • enhanced green fluorescent protein
  • Green Fluorescent Proteins
  • Polyethyleneimine

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the Protein Sample Production Facility (PSPF) of the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in Braunschweig. We also thank the HZI-Graduate School for supporting Margitta Schürig. In addition, we would like to thank the Rudolf-Virchow-Centre for support. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.