Expression of Recombinant Collagen Domains and Matrikines in Eukaryotic Cells.

The expression of extracellular matrix protein domains, which exhibit biological activities of their own, is required in order to get a sufficient amount to perform experiments aiming at determining their structure, interactions, and functions, and for preclinical and clinical studies. We describe here the protocol we designed to express in human embryonic kidney cells a recombinant von Willebrand factor A domain of human collagen VI, and recombinant anti-angiogenic matrikines of human collagens VIII (vastatin) and XVIII (endostatin).