Anion exchanger 1 (AE1) is a 95 kDa glycoprotein that facilitates Cl-/HCO3- exchange across the erythrocyte plasma membrane. Seven conserved tryptophan (Trp) residues are in the AE1 membrane domain; at the membrane interface (Trp648, Trp662, and Trp723), in transmembrane segment (TM) 4 (Trp492 and Trp496), and in hydrophilic loops (Trp831, and Trp848). All 7 Trp residues were individually mutated into alanine (Ala) and phenylalanine (Phe) and transiently expressed in human embryonic kidney (HEK)-293 cells. The 7 Trp residues could be grouped into three classes according to the impact of the mutations on the functional expression of AE1: class 1, normal expression, class 2, expression decreased, and class 3, expression decreased by Ala substitution. These results indicate that Trp residues play differential roles in AE1 expression depending on their location in the protein and suggest that Trp mutants with a low expression are misfolded and retained in the ER.

Escherichia coli (E. coli) is an attractive host for production of recombinant proteins, since it generally provides a rapid and economical means to achieve high product quantities. In this thesis, the impact of the glucose uptake rate on the production of recombinant proteins was studied, aiming at improving and optimising production of recombinant proteins in E. coli. E. coli can be cultivated to high cell densities in bioreactors by applying the fed-batch technique, which offers a means to control the glucose uptake rate. One objective of this study was to find a method for control of the glucose uptake rate in small-scale cultivation, such as microtitre plates and shake flasks. Strains with mutations in the phosphotransferase system (PTS) where used for this purpose. The mutants had lower uptake rates of glucose, resulting in lower growth rates and lower accumulation of acetic acid in comparison to the wild type. By using the mutants in batch cultivations, the formation of acetic acid to levels detrimental to cell growth could be avoided, and ten times higher cell density was reached. Thus, the use of the mutant strains represent a novel, simple alternative to fed-batch cultures.   The PTS mutants were applied for production of integral membrane proteins in order to investigate if the reduced glucose uptake rate of the mutants was beneficial for their production. The mutants were able to produce three out of five integral membrane proteins that were not possible to produce by the wild-type strain. The expression level of one selected membrane protein was increased when using the mutants and the expression level appeared to be a function of strain, glucose uptake rate and acetic acid accumulation. For production purposes, it is not uncommon that the recombinant proteins are secreted to the E. coli periplasm. However, one drawback with secretion is the undesired leakage of periplasmic products to the medium. The leakage of the product to the medium was studied as a function of the feed rate of glucose in fed-batch cultivations and they were found to correlate. It was also shown that the amount of outer membrane proteins was affected by the feed rate of glucose and by secretion of a recombinant product to the periplasm. The cell surface is another compartment where recombinant proteins can be expressed. Surface display of proteins is a potentially attractive production strategy since it offers a simple purification scheme and possibilities for on-cell protein characterisation, and may in some cases also be the only viable option. The AIDA-autotransporter was applied for surface display of the Z domain of staphylococcal protein A under control of the aidA promoter. Z was expressed in an active form and was accessible to the medium. Expression was favoured by growth in minimal medium and it seemed likely that expression was higher at higher feed rates of glucose during fed-batch cultivation. A repetitive batch process was developed, where relatively high cell densities were achieved whilst maintaining a high expression level of Z. / QC 20110608

CD47 is a so-called "don't eat me" signal, which protects cells from phagocytosis. Its high expresion on tumor cells brings new perspective to the tumor therapy. Monoclonal antibodies, which are these days undergoing clinical trials, prevent CD47 binding to the SIRPA inhibitory receptor on macrophages, and so they enhance their phagocytic functional capacity. In this way they enable phagocytic removal of tumor cells. Overall expression, structural conformation and stoichiometry of CD47 on a particular cell predestine whether it will be phagocytised. The aim of the thesis is to develop and test methods to characterise expression parameters of CD47 via flow cytometry (FCM), quantitative PCR (qPCR) and microscopy. To achieve this goal I performed competition tests of commercially available antibodies in order to characterise their binding epitopes on cell lines. After performing tSNE analysis of primary BCa patient samples I correlated CD47 expression with other cell surface markers. I focused on CD47 expression in various differentiation stages of the tumor. To better understand the relationship between CD47 expression and differentiation status of cells I performed qPCR analysis of particular transcription factors. Using cell lines I examined method for phagocytosis quantification, which will be...