Plant-Produced Basic Fibroblast Growth Factor (bFGF) Promotes Cell Proliferation and Collagen Production

Abstract

Human fibroblast growth factor regulates a broad spectrum of biological functions, including cell proliferation and tissue differentiation, and has a wider application in tissue engineering. Here, we described the production of human basic fibroblast growth factor in plants by using a geminiviral vector system. In this study, we transiently expressed basic fibroblast growth factor containing a C-terminus 8X-Histidine with and without a barley alpha amylase signal peptide in Nicotiana benthamiana. The expression level of basic fibroblast growth factor without the signal peptide was found to be higher than the basic fibroblast growth factor with the signal peptide. Further, the recombinant basic fibroblast growth factor was purified from the plant crude extract by two-step purification viz., ammonium sulfate precipitation and Ni-affinity chromatography. Our results demonstrated that the purified plant-produced basic fibroblast growth factor was biologically active and promotes the proliferation of human periodontal ligament stem cells and human follicle dermal papilla cells in vitro. Moreover, the plant-produced basic fibroblast growth factor also induced collagen production in human dermal fibroblast cells. Our results suggest the potential use of plant-produced basic fibroblast growth factor as an antiaging and hair growth-promoting agent in the cosmetic industry.