Heat-Induced Production of Human Growth Hormone by High Cell Density Cultivation of Recombinant Escherichia Coli

The temperature-induced, over-expression of the human growth hormone gene in a recombinant E. coli during high cell density cultivation is reported. Human growth hormone (hGH) production and stability were tested under different heat shock conditions. Cell densities were 25 and 60 g l−1 in a pH-stat fed-batch mode in defined and complex medium, respectively, and the fermentation time was decreased from 41 to 32 h. hGH was produced at 2 g l−1 in complex medium. By using glycerol as main carbon source in the complex medium with exponential feeding, cell density and hGH production were increased to 100 g l−1 and 2.7 g l−1, respectively.