Functional Production of Catalytic Domains of Human MMPs in Escherichia coli Periplasm

Due to their central roles in tumor growth and invasion, milligram-level amounts of active MMPs are frequently required for cancer research and development of chemical or biological MMP inhibitors. Here we describe methods for functional production of catalytic domains of MMPs (cdMMPs) in E. coli periplasm without refolding or activation process. We demonstrate applications of this straightforward approach for cdMMP-9, cdMMP-14, and cdMMP-14 mutants.