Growth kinetics of Chinese hamster ovary cells in a compact loop bioreactor. 3. Selection and characterization of an anchorage-independent subline and medium improvement

Four sublines of Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells were selected or cloned on a 10% fetal calf serum supplemented MEM-α medium. Three of them were monolayer cultures and could proliferate by 2000 times a week ( μ = 1.1 d −1) in T-flasks. The other subline, S1, could grow in suspension even in static T-flask cultures. The stability in chromosome number of these cell lines was investigated. By evaluating the kinetic growth parameters, i.e. the specific rates of growth, glucose consumption and lactic acid production, and the yields of cells and lactic acid from glucose, the S1 cells were considered to be the most suitable subline for the bioreactor suspension culture. The S1 cells reached the greatest maximum of cell concentration among all cell lines tested because of their efficient glucose utilization. Observed nutrient limitations in the S1 cell culture was overcome by modification of the medium composition, that is addition of 10 mg l −1 hypoxanthine, 1 mg l −1 FeSO 4·7H 2O, and 0.1 mg l −1 sodium putrescine, elimination of glutamine, supplementation of 6 mM asparagine and double amount of isoleucine, leucine, methionine and vitamins other than ascorbic acid, cyanocobalamin and biotin, increase of NaHCO 3 concentration from 26 to 40 mM, and finally decrease of NaCl concentration from 122 to 100 mM. With this modified medium, 7.2 × 10 6 ml −1 of the maximum cell concentration was observed in a glucose fed-batch culture, the cell concentration which was twice as much as in batch cultures with the original medium.