Molecular medicine-Protein Aggregation in the Cellular Environment

The Formation of Inclusion Bodies
The overexpression of genes introduced in
foreign hosts frequently results in aggregated
nonnative proteins called inclusion
bodies. In cells, inclusion bodies appear as
unordered amorphous aggregates clearly
separated from the rest of the cytoplasm;
they form a highly refractive area when
observed microscopically. A great variety
of experimental studies indicates that the
formation of inclusion bodies results from
partially folded intermediates in the intracellular
folding pathway and not from
either totally unfolded or native proteins.