Recombinant Functional Human Lactoferrin Expressed in Baculovirus System

Human lactoferrin (hLf) is a multifunctional iron-binding glycoprotein.In this study,weamplified hLfcDNA by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction from normal human mammary gland.The nucleotide sequence of the hLf was identical to the known hLf.We constructed a recombinant virus,vBm-hLf,harboring the hLf gene and exploited the BmN cells as host to produce recombinant human lactoferrin(rhLf).It was found that a recombinant protein with a molecular mass of approximately 78 kDa was expressed.Approximately 13.5μg rhLf was purified from 1-2×10~5 BmN cells infected by vBm-hLf and the rhLfproved to be biologically active.This method established in our study will pave the way for efficient productionof rhLf for further application of this protein in the future.