In vitro production of monoclonal antibodies under serum-free conditions using a compact and inexpensive hollow fibre cell culture unit

A compact and easily portable hollow fibre cell culture system using commercially available components is described. The construction is relatively cheap and simple. As the hollow fibre cell culture cartridge we chose an inexpensive haemodialyser. Though not specially developed for this purpose this performed excellently in our system. Using a serum-free medium supplemented with ethanolamine, selenium and transferrin, an average antibody production of 30–200 mg per cartridge per day could be achieved, depending on the cell line. Because a serum-free medium was used, monoclonal antibodies could readily be purified on a large scale.