An Expression System for Mammalian Amino Acid Transporters Using a Stably Maintained Episomal Vector

Despite its versatility and effectiveness in numerous studies, the vaccinia/HeLa cell expression model may not be optimal for the study of all transport proteins. To evaluate an alternative expression model for amino acid transport Systems ASC and XAG−, the mRNA content and transport activity encoded by human hippocampal ASCT1 cDNA and rat hippocampal EAAC1 cDNA, respectively, were measured in pDR2-cDNA-transfected human embryonic kidney 293 cells made competent by stable transfection with the Epstein–Barr neutral antigen-1 (EBNA-1) cDNA (293c18 cells) to evaluate the EBNA-1/293c18 expression system. The results show that (i) the EBNA-1/293c18 expression system results in a larger increase over background of Systems ASCT1 (6.4×) and EAAC1 (39×) transport activity than does the vaccinia/HeLa expression system (2.6× and 22×, respectively); (ii) transfection and hygromycin B selection for the pDR2 vector do not affect the endogenous transport velocities of Systems ASC, X−AG, or A; and (iii) the endogenous transport velocities of Systems ASC and XAG−in 293c18 cells were not affected by the expression of exogenous EAAC1 or ASCT1. We conclude that the EBNA-1/293c18 cell expression model represents a useful transient expression regimen to characterize mammalian amino acid transport proteins, especially for transporters that may exhibit relatively low activity in transient expression systems lacking a selection mechanism.