Production of recombinant bovine Follicle-stimulating hormone (rbFSH) in mammalian cells

Abstract

Brazil has the largest commercial cattle herd in the world, making the strategic exploitation of beef cattle and milk production chains an extremely important factor for the country to maximize its position in the global agricultural market. Reproduction technologies such as fixed-time artificial insemination, embryo transfer and in vitro fertilization are increasingly used tools to raise productivity, allowing the large-scale production of calves with a high genetic standard. In all these techniques, hormonal modulation protocols are used. The follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) is one of the most used hormones in cattle reproduction technology. Such is the economic importance of this input that its national production is expressly included in the list of strategic targets of the Biotechnology Development Policy of the Federal Government, since all products available in the Brazilian market are imported. In addition, commercially available FSH is of porcine origin (pFSH) and extracted from the pituitary gland of slaughtered pigs, presenting contamination by luteinizing hormone (LH) and potential source of pathogens such as viruses and prions, and also presenting differences on potency even between lots of the same product. The purpose of this project is the recombinant production of bovine FSH (rbFSH) in mammalian cells, focusing on the generation of molecules with a glycosylation profile that provides higher activity of the hormone, resulting in a homogenous, well-characterized and safe product, with high purity and increased bioactivity. (AU)