Chapter 25 - Transgenic Cloned Goats and the Production of Therapeutic Proteins

Abstract

The use of recombinant therapeutic proteins has increased during the past two decades. Clinical applications often require large amounts of highly purified molecules, sometimes for multiple treatments. The development of very efficient expression systems is essential for the full exploitation of recombinant technology. Production of recombinant protein in the milk of transgenic goats is currently being tested for the production of a number of therapeutic antibodies as well as an alternative to plasma fractionation for the manufacture of human antithrombin. This chapter focuses on the potential of somatic cell nuclear transfer to generate transgenic goats used in the production of recombinant therapeutics. The nuclear transfer protocols offer several advantages over the use of pronuclear microinjection such as preselection of transgenic integration sites, nonmosaic founder, and apparent reduction in the number of surgical procedures necessary to generate founders. The goats generated by somatic cell nuclear transfer do not suffer from health problems such as large birth weight, placentation defects, and hematological dysfunction, which are sometimes reported with cloned sheep and cattle.