Survival Factor-Like Activity of Small Peptides in Hybridoma and CHO Cells Cultures

Abstract

Synthetic peptides containing three to six amino acid residues were previously shown to improve key parameters of monoclonal antibody-producing mouse hybridoma cultures. The aim of the current work was to investigate whether small peptides also exert analogous beneficial impact on a CHO-K1-derived cell line (XMK-111-10) engineered for production of the human model glycoprotein SEAP (secreted alkaline phosphatase). Similar to hybridoma cultures, growth and SEAP production profiles of CHO XMK-111-10 were modulated by peptides. Both viable cell density and SEAP production were increased by tetraalanine or by a fraction of wheat gluten hydrolysate. Whereas tetraglycine increased the peak viable cell density, the growth-suppressing tripeptide Gly-Lys-Gly significantly boosted SEAP production. All peptide-supplemented cultures showed slight improvement of culture viability during the decline phase of the batch cultures, suggesting a survival factor-like activity of the peptides.