Abstract: Given that type I collagens dominate among ECMs aberrantly accumulated in fibrotic tissues, we consider to adopt the excellent affinity of the peptide of human PlGF-2 (aa. 123-144) for type I collagens to improve tissue targeting specificity of antifibrotic agents. We firstly modified the DNA coding sequence of peptide PlGF-2123-144 and constructed GST-PlGF-2123-144 prokaryotic expression plasmid. GST-PlGF-2123-144 fused proteins were then expressed in E. coli BL21, affinity purified with glutathione sepharose 4B matrix and PBS dialyzed. High affinity for type I collagen of these prepared GST-PlGF-2123-144 fused proteins was finally confirmed with ELISA assay. Our work contributes to the development of anti-fibrotic drugs that specifically target fibrotic tissue.

Key words: type I collagen, PlGF-2123-144, GST fused protein, prokaryotic expression