Large-Scale Culture of Mammalian Cells for Various Industrial Purposes

Abstract

AbstractThere is the widespread use of large-scale mammalian cell culture in biotechnological and pharmaceutical industries for various purposes. Select vital provisions used to culture mammalian cells from moderately high to large scale are Spinner Flasks, Cell Factories, Roller Bottle Systems, Hollow Fiber Systems, and Bioreactors. The volume of the cell culture can be increased by increasing the number of Spinner Flasks, Cell Factories, Roller Bottle Systems, and Hollow Fiber Systems. However, mammalian cell culture bioreactors are available in various sizes, ranging from (1 to 5) liters (tabletop), (10 to 100) liters in medium sizes, or even to an extent of thousand liters. Prominent bioreactors, presently in use, include Stirred Tank Bioreactors, Bubble Column Bioreactors, Airlift Bioreactors, Tower Bioreactors, and Fluidized Bed Bioreactors. These large-scale instruments control and monitor various parameters such as effective nutrient supply, regular harvesting of products, and discard of toxic metabolites such as ammonia, aeration without generating air bubbles, creating shear stress, monitoring, and maintenance of optimal temperature (37 °C), pH (~7.4), moisture, pressure, and osmolarity within the culture medium. At present, very large-scale bioreactors are robotically controlled. Regarding culture procedures, suspension cultures are preferred over their adhesion counterparts due to high-density cell growth and increased generation of products. The different operational modes of a bioreactor in use for product harvest include batch and fed-batch continuous culture. Many research groups have developed novel bioreactors for growing specialized tissues/cells on a structural scaffold, in an attempt to recreate organ-like tissue structures in vitro.KeywordsMammalian cell cultureBioreactorsScale-up operationLarge scale cultureAdherent vs suspension cultureBatch and fed-batch (continuous culture)