The ligand-binding domain of VLDL receptor contains eight imperfectly similar repeats. To discuss the contribution of each repeat to ligand binding, the RT-PCR technique was used to clone the VLDLR-cDNA from the heart muscle of Chinese people. Two recombinants were further constructed, which contained the full-length cDNA of VLDLR and the mutant lacking repeats 1-5. CHO cell line was transfected with two recombinants. The expression of VLDLR gene could be detected by RT-PCR from the CHO cells transfected with pCD-VR. The results of binding experiments showed that the ability of the CHO cells transfected with the full-length cDNA of VLDL-R binding DiI-labeled beta-VLDL was higher than that of the CHO cells transfected with the mutant. Our findings indicated that human VLDL-R gene could be expressed effectively on CHO cells, and the receptor was almost inactivated when repeats 1-5 were deleted.