Expression of recombinant h-FGF21 in periplasmic space of Escherichia coli

Fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21) is a novel metabolic regulator of glucose and lipid, which is safe, effective and independent on insulin. FGF21 is considered as a prospective anti-diabetic drug. The aim of this study was to express recombinant h-FGF21 in periplasmic space of Escherichia coli. The pET27b plasmid was used to create the expression vectors of h-FGF21 with a PelB secretion signal. The ph-FGF21 (periplasmic expression of h-FGF21) was successfully expressed in the periplasm of E. coli BL21 (DE3), and soluble ph-FGF21 was isolated by disruption of the outer membrane. After twice of ion exchange chromatography, the purity of ph-FGF21 was above 95% in an analysis with a gray analysis software. The molecular weight of ph-FGF21 was about 20 kDa in SDS-PAGE and Western blotting analysis. The activity of ph-FGF21 and ih-FGF21 (intracellular expression of h-FGF21) was observed in vitro in the glucose uptake assay in HepG2 cells. The activity was observed in type 2 diabetic db/db mice after short or long-term treatments. The results suggest that the ph-FGF21 has a consistent activity with ih-FGF21 in vitro and in vivo.