Table 7-3.3 Metabolic engineering of microorganisms to exploit the hormones:

In order to provide large quantities of IGF-I for physiological investigation and clinical trial, rDNA technology has become the method of choice since large amount of exogenous proteins could be expressed in bacteria. The prokaryote E. coli is preferred as host because of its ease of handling and cultivation, and high yields for many recombinant proteins. Several literature references exist on the production of IGF-I in bacteria as a secreted form fused to secretion leader sequences. (Kim et al 1996)

Figure 7-3.3.1: Outline scheme for production of recombinant IGF-I.