Deciphering the Biological Activity of Recombinant Guinea Pig Proteins

Abstract

The guinea pig is one of the most relevant small animal models for studying a large number of infectious and non-infectious diseases. The major roadblock for its effective utilization is the lack of readily available molecular and immunological reagents. In order to address this issue, some of the important recombinant proteins such as IL-4, IL-10, IL-1β, MCP-1, IFN-y and TNFα which were generated previously were analyzed for their biological activity in terms of nitrite production in RAW cells. Interestingly, nitrite production was comparatively more in the presence of TNF-α in comparison with proinflammatory cytokine IFN-y and similar levels of nitrite production were observed in the presence of Th2 cytokines i.e IL-4 and IL-10. We have analyzed the biological activities of these recombinant proteins so that they could be used for a wide array of in vitro and in vivo biological assays.