J Biol Chem. 2019 Oct 30. pii: jbc.RA119.011162. [Epub ahead of print]
Polyamines have essential roles in cell proliferation, DNA replication, transcription, and translation processes, with intracellular depletion of putrescine, spermidine, and spermine resulting in cellular growth arrest and eventual death. Serum-free media for CHO-K1 cells require putrescine supplementation, as these cells lack the first enzyme of the polyamine production pathway, arginase. On the basis of this phenotype, we developed an arginase-based selection system. We transfected CHO-K1 cells with a bicistronic vector co-expressing GFP and arginase and selected cells in media devoid of L-ornithine and putrescine, resulting in mixed populations stably expressing GFP. Moreover, single clones in these selective media stably expressed GFP for a total of 42 generations. Using this polyamine starvation method, we next generated recombinant CHO-K1 cells co-expressing arginase and human erythropoietin (EPO), which also displayed stable expression and healthy growth. The EPO-expressing clones grew in commercial media, such as BalanCD and CHO-S SFM-II, as well as in a defined serum-free, putrescine-containing medium for at least nine passages (27 generations), with a minimal decrease in EPO titer by the end of the culture. We observed lack of arginase activity also in several CHO cell strains (CHO-DP12, CHO-S, and DUXB11) and other mammalian cell lines, including BHK21, suggesting broader utility of this selection system. In conclusion, we have established an easy-to-apply alternative selection system that effectively generates mammalian cell clones expressing biopharmaceutically relevant or other recombinant proteins without the need for any toxic selective agents. We propose that this system is applicable to mammalian cell lines that lack arginase activity.
Keywords: Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO); arginase; cloning; erythropoietin; mammal; polyamine; putrescine; recombinant protein expression; selection system