This document discusses animal cell culture and its applications. It provides information on: 1) The uses of animal cell culture including production of recombinant proteins, monoclonal antibodies, and cell biology studies. 2) Characteristics of animal cell culture compared to microorganism culture, including lower growth rates and productivity. 3) Products that can be produced from mammalian cell cultures including cells, cell-derived products, and recombinant glycoproteins. 4) Types of animal cells commonly used in culture including epithelial, fibroblast, muscle, and blood/lymph cells.

1. Animal Cell Culture Animal Cell Culture
Applications
• Production of recombinant proteins
• Production of MAb - Hybridoma
• Study of cell biology
Prof. S.T. Yang
Dept. Chemical & Biomolecular Eng. • Tissue engineering - artificial organs
The Ohio State University • in vitro cell toxicity and drug screening
Cell culture vs. Animal Animal Cell Bioprocessing
• Problems for large-scale animal cell cultures
• Advantages (compared to microorganism)
– Consistency and reproducibility results
– Minimum inoculum size: ~105/ml or 1-5x104/cm2
– understanding the effects of a particular
– low cell proliferation rate: tg = 12 - 48 h
compound on a specific cell type (e.g., liver cells)
– low productivity of target products
– avoid contaminants
– high medium costs (serum)
• Disadvantages
– low resistance to toxic metabolites (ammonia,
– cell characteristics can change (growth and inhibit growth or lactic acid, change in pH)
biochemical)
– higher sensibility to outer stimuli, higher
– cell may need to adapt to nutrients susceptibility to shear stress (only thin & soft cell
membrane of lipid bilayer)
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2. Products from Mammalian Cell Cultures Cell Types
• Group I: cells as end • Group II: cell-derived products
– Growth factors
products
• Nerve growth factor, Epidermal growth factor
• Epithelial (skin)
– Artificial skin
– Proteases (Urokinase, etc.)
– Artificial organs
– Hormones
• Fibroblast (most widely used,
• Beta-islet cells (pancreas)
• Hepatocytes (liver)
• Human growth hormone, Insulin, Calcitonin,
Parathyroid hormone
bone cartilage and fibrous matrix
– Bone marrow – Monoclonal antibodies for body)
– Lymphocytes • single type of antibody binds to specific
compounds selectively.
– Gene/cell theraphy • Used in diagnostic and therapeutic agents • Muscle
– Vaccines
• Polio, Measles, Mumps, Rubella, Yellow
fever, Rabies, Influenza • Neuron
– Recombinant Glycoproteins (Cytokines)
• Interferons, block virus replication • Blood and lymph (cells in
Annals New York • Blood clotting factors (VIII, IX)
Academy of Sciences, 356 • Glycoprotein hormone, EPO suspension)
• Plasminogen activators 20 μm
Animal Cells
• Anchorage-independent
Animal cells - characteristics
– Blood cells • Unicellular organisms (microbes) – proliferate until
– Cancer cells stop signal is detected
– Hybridoma cells - Produce MAb (monoclonal • Multicellular organisms – proliferation is tightly
antibody) regulated
– Some cells never divide – nerve, muscle cells
• Anchorage-dependent
– Some cells are always dividing – stem cells
– Need solid surface to support growth – Some cells don’t normally divide unless stimulated –
– Primary cells fibroblasts – wound recovery
– Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells - Produce – Loss of proper control cancer
glycosylated recombinant proteins
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3. Cellular Responses
to Environmental Stimuli The Cell Cycle
Growth Arrest Apoptosis M
Growing Cell Differentiation G1 Cancer G2 Apoptosis
Differentiation Cancer S
Continue growth
Tissue Cultures
Transformed Cell Lines
• Initiated by placing a piece of tissue in a glass dish that contains serum
• Cells migrates out of the tissue along the surface of the glass and proliferate.
They proliferate only if they are firmly attached to and spread out over an • Lost normal growth control
adhesive substrate (anchorage dependence)
• Proliferation ceases when the dish is covered with a single layer of cells. Once • Can be selected when tissue culture cell lines are
the cells form a continuous sheet they stop dividing (contact inhibition) allowed to grow repeatedly to high densities
• Transferring the contact inhibited primary cells at lower densities to new
dishes that contain fresh medium induces them to resume proliferation. After • Produced by allowing cells to grow out of tumors
about 50 divisions in tissue culture proliferation slows and cells begin to die
(senescence) • Produced by treating primary cells or
• Some of the cells in the culture accumulate genetic change that allow them to nontransformed cell lines with chemical carcinogens
escape senescence. As long as they are transferred to new dishes periodically,
these cells can divide indefinitely. These homogeneous populations are called
or cancer-inducing viruses
tissue culture cell lines. They resemble primary cells in their growth control. • When injected into animals without functional
(non-transformed)
immune system, transformed cell lines cause tumors.
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4. Requirements for cells used in cell culture
Commonly used cell lines Property Examples
Efficient expression of foreign genes Transcription and post -transcriptional process;
Cell Line Cell Type Application Comment
Protein synthesis; Secretion
BHK (baby hamster kidney) Fibroblast Vaccine production Anchorage dependent, can be induced to suspension
COS (African green monkey kidney) Fibroblast Transient expression of Contain a mutant of SV40 virus Post-translational modifications e.g. protein folding; glycosylation, phosphorylation
recombinant genes Stability of transgene expression Genotypic (chromosomal stability)
L (Mouse connective tissue) Fibroblast Tumour cell line
Phenotypic (CpG methylation, chromosome structure alterations)
3T3 (Mouse connective tissue) Fibroblast Develop culture technique Vigorous growth in suspension;
WI-38 (human embryonic lung) Fibroblast Human vaccine Finite life-span, “normal” cells
Absence of adventitious agents Viruses; Mycoplasms
Vero Fibroblast Human vaccine Established cell line capable of continuous growth but Cultivation requirements Serum Growth factors, stabilizing proteins
with normal diploid charact.
Fermentation properties Growth to high cell densities
Resistance to shear forces
CHO (chinese hamster ovary) Epithelial Genetic engineering Attach to surface if available, will grow in suspension
HeLa (Human cervical carcinoma) Epithelial Fast growing human cancer cell isolated in the 1950's Aeration processes
Production of toxic compounds (e.g. lactic acid)
MPC-11 (Mouse myeloma) Lymphoblast immunoglobulin Derived from mouse tumor
Production under fermentation High production at high cell density
Namalwa (human lymphoma) Lymphoblast a-interferon Derived from burkitt's lymphoma patient
conditions Reduced cell growth
NB41A3 (Mouse Neuroblastoma) Neuronal Tumour cells have nerve cell characteristics including Protein requirements in medium
response to nerve growth factor
Cell Growth Fast growth at low cell density
BW5147 (Murine thymus)
Reduced growth at high cell density
Mammalian Cell Biotechnology in Protein Production, H. Hauser, 1996
Cell Metabolism Culture Techniques
• Culture containers - T-flask, multiwell, bioreactor
• Culture media - BME, BMEM, DMEM, GMEM,
Han’s F-12, CHO
• CO2 incubator - 5-10%, pH 6.9-7.4, 37oC
−
CO2 + H 2O ↔ H 2CO3 ↔ H + + HCO3
basic acidic
• Sterilization - Filtration
• Liquid N2 storage
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5. Media Supplements Extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins
• Serum
• Carbohydrate – proteins (immunoglobulins, albumin,
Energy source transferin, fetuin, fibronectin)
– growth factors
glucose (4-5g/L), fructose – Insulin (glucose uptake)
• Amino acid (0.1-0.2 mM) – steroids
protein precursors – Trace minerals (Fe, Cu, Zn, Se)
– Growth inhibitors
glutamine (2-4mM)
• Alternative to serum(serum free)
• Salts (Buffer): K, Mg, Ca – cell type specific e.g. insulin,
isotonic, osmolarity 300 mOsm/l transferrin, ethanolamine, sodium
PBS, HEPES selenite
• Vitamins (μM) and hormones • AntibioticsG (100 U/ml) inhibit G+
– Penicillin
metabolic cofactors bacteria
• Phenol red – streptomycin (50 mg/l) G+ & G-
– amphotericin B (25mg/l) anti-fungi
indicator, pH: 7.4 (red), – culture are easy to overgrow by bacteria
7.0 (orange), 6.5 (yellow) because of the difference in growth rates
(typical doubling time: animal cell: 24 h,
bacteria: 30min)
Bioreactors for Culture in
Bioreactor Systems Suspension or on Carriers
for Animal Cell Cultures
• Static flasks and roller bottles
• Spinner flasks
• Bioreactors (stirred, airlift, immobilized)
Features for Wave Bioreactor:
- Disposable Bioreactor Chamber.
- Scalable to 500 liters.
- Completely closed system. Operates without an incubator.
- Easy to operate.
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6. Microcarrier and Fibrous Support Matrix
Porous microcarrier increases Non-woven fibers with large
available surface areas for surface areas for cell
anchorage-dependent cell attachment and growth
growth
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7. Considerations in Bioprocess Design
• Media composition selection
• DO (dissolved oxygen)
• Accumulation of toxic metabolites
• Shear stress to cell when oxygen or mixing
is needed
• Other factors: Temp, pH, osmotic pressure,
etc.
Optimization and control
Minimizing Mechanical Stresses of culturing conditions
• Precise pH control
• Design agitation system • Precise DO control
• Thermal environment must be uniform • Accurate temperature control
• No disturbing the system during adding • Reliable monitoring of important cell culture
parameters (cell density, conc. of glucose,
nutrients and removing wastes lactate, ammonia)
• Adequate oxygen delivery without • Dependable nutrient feed and harvest rate
excessive foaming or shear damage controls
• Automatic impeller acceleration control for 20-
225 rpm
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8. Industrial Scale Cell Culture
Typical Oxygen Transfer Coefficients
• serum free media (chemical defined, easy
separation) for Cell Growth in Various Systems
• up to 20,000L
• oxygen System KLa (h-1)
• bubble: direct sparging
• bubble-free: surface aeration or flow through cage Animal cells, 2 x 106 cells/ml (0.5 g/L) 1 -25
• perfusion culture to remove toxic metabolites Bacterial cells (10 - 20 g/L) 100 - 1000
• reduce physical stress Yeast cells (10 - 30 g/L) 100 - 1000
• pH, osmolality controlled by buffer, PBS,
HEPES (pH~7)
• development of anchorage-independent cell line
Culturing Mode
• Batch
– CSTR or PFR
– maximum cell density 106 cell/ml
• depletion of an essential nutrient
• accumulation of an inhibitor
• complete cover of available growth surface (space)
• Fed-Batch
• Continuous
– Chemostat vs. perfusion
• Cell Immobilization
– surface attachment vs. entrapment
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9. Bioreactor as Cell Factory
Hematopoiesis
Hole, Cells Tissues Organs 1999;165:181-189.
Kaufman et al, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 2001;98:10716-10721
Tissue Engineering
Embryonic Stem Cells
Embryonic Stem Cells (Inner Cell Mass)
Ectoderm Mesoderm Endoderm
Heart
Hematopoietic
Epidermis Muscle Intestines
stem cell (HSC)
Nervous system Kidney Liver
(Neural stem cell) Vascular system Pancreas
Mesenchymal Lung
stem cell
Blood cells 1.Muscle cells are seeded on a tube of biodegradable polymer matrix.
2.It is placed in a bioreactor.
Bone Cartilage Adipocyte Skeletal Muscle 3.Two month later, smooth muscle is generated.
4.Endothelial cells are added to line the tube. The blood vessel can be used
for instance in heart surgery
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10. Artificial Liver Bioreactor for Drug Screening
Chorionic villous
Intervillous
space
Circulating
The liver-on-chip Water
Capillary
bioreactor from Syncytiotrophoblast
Hepatometrix.
Media Media
Media Media
Fibrous matrix
Circulating
Water
• Human placenta trophoblast cells
• Human colon cancer cells
EGFP production under CMV promoter can be Microbioreactor for Gene/Cell Therapy
used as S-phase marker for drug screening
S-
S-phase
Three critical issues in implant devices
– Tissue
– Immune rejection
– Device design
GFP vs Cells
8.0E+05
A B C
7.0E+05
6.0E+05
y = 0.657x + 22068 A. Cells expressing GFP
5.0E+05 CHO GFP
B. Cells stained with BrdU
Fluorescence (CPS)
4.0E+05
C. Superimposed image
3.0E+05
2.0E+05
1.0E+05
0.0E+00
0.0E+00 2.0E+05 4.0E+05 6.0E+05 8.0E+05 1.0E+06
GDNF: A novel treatment for Parkinson’s Disease
Parkinson’
Cell Num ber
Glial cell line Derived Neurotrophic Factor
Cell Number vs. GFP Fluorescence
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11. Fermentation & Cell Culture Go
Micro-bioreactor
High Throughput
• Functional genomics call for
high throughput in cell
cultivation
• Reported working volumes: 250
μL - 2 mL
• Miniaturized and automated
pH, temperature and dissolved
oxygen measurements and/or
reproducible gas delivery
• Combined with printed circuit
board, integrated circuit sensors
and electrochemical gas
generation system
Michel et al (2004), Biotechnol Bioeng, 85,376-381 BioProcessors Corp.
Microscale cell culture analog -
Microfluidic Bioreactor Array Animal on a chip
HepG2/C3A in the
liver chamber
L2 cells in the 3T3-L1 in the fat
lung chamber chamber
Cell-based high throughput screening for drug discovery
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