Production of biologically active human basic fibroblast growth factor (hFGFb) using Nicotiana tabacum transplastomic plants

Abstract

The use of plants as biofactories presents as an attractive technology with the potential to efciently produce highvalue human recombinant proteins in a cost-efective manner. Plastid genome transformation stands out for its possibility to accumulate recombinant proteins at elevated levels. Of particular interest are recombinant growth factors, given their applications in animal cell culture and regenerative medicine. In this study, we produced recombinant human Fibroblast Growth Factor (rhFGFb), a crucial protein required for animal cell culture, in tobacco chloroplasts. We successfully generated two independent transplastomic lines that are homoplasmic and accumulate rhFGFb in their leaves. Furthermore, the produced rhFGFb demonstrated its biological activity by inducing proliferation in HEK293T cell lines. These results collectively underscore plastid genome transformation as a promising plant-based bioreactor for rhFGFb production.