Abstract
Silk fibroin proteins are biomaterials with diverse applications. These spider and silkworm proteins have specific biological effects when consumed by mammals; in addition to reducing blood pressure and blood glucose and cholesterol levels, they have anti-human immunodeficiency virus activity. In the present study, rice (Oryza sativa) was engineered to produce the C-terminus of the major ampullate spidroin protein from the spider Araneus ventricosus under the control of a Prolamin promoter. Homozygous transgenic rice lines were identified, and the therapeutic effect of this spider silk fibroin protein on the lipid and glucose metabolism was analyzed in a mouse model. Feeding fat-fed mice, the transgenic rice seeds for four weeks reduced serum concentrations of triglycerides, total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase, and glutamic pyruvic transaminase, and lowered blood glucose levels. This is the first study to investigate the effects of consumption of rice seeds heterologously expressing spider silk fibroin protein in a mammalian model. Our findings suggest that functional foods containing spider silk fibroin protein might be useful as potential pharmaceutical materials for preventing and treating diabetes, hyperlipidemia, and hypercholesterolemia
Highlights
Silk fibroin proteins from spiders or silkworms are attractive biomaterials for biotechnological applications because of their biocompatibility, biodegradability, and mechanical properties [1,2,3,4].They have been used in a wide range of products, including biomedicines, textiles, personal hygiene products, and cosmetics; for instance, silk fibroin proteins have been used in biopolymers, contact lens materials, biomaterial membranes, microcapsules, and bioengineered bone grafts [1,2,3,5]
We previously reported the cloning and expression of partial cDNAs encoding the C-terminus of the spider (Araneus ventricosus) major ampullate silk protein (AvMaSp), which was found to enhance insulin secretion and reduce blood glucose levels when consumed by diabetic mice [7,14]
To generate the transgenic rice plants, we used a pCAMBIA1300 vector containing the AvMaSp gene driven by the Prolamin promoter, a Tnos terminator, and a hygromycin-resistant selection marker (Figure 1A)
Summary
Silk fibroin proteins from spiders or silkworms are attractive biomaterials for biotechnological applications because of their biocompatibility, biodegradability, and mechanical properties [1,2,3,4]. They have been used in a wide range of products, including biomedicines, textiles, personal hygiene products, and cosmetics; for instance, silk fibroin proteins have been used in biopolymers, contact lens materials, biomaterial membranes, microcapsules, and bioengineered bone grafts [1,2,3,5]. The heavy chain fibroin silk from silkworms contains 2377 repeats of a GX dipeptide motif, where the X residues are A (in 64% of the repeats), S (22%), Y (10%), V (3%), and T (1.3%) [8].
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