A packed bed bioreactor systems for growth of anchorage dependent cells: A comparative study between Eppendorf’s BioBLU® 5p Single Use Vessel and the Traditional Glass Vessel.

Single-use bioreactors are becoming very popular in biomanufacturing of biologics, monoclonal antibodies and vaccines. The common impeller system used in suspension cultures is the pitch blade. It has been used successfully in scale-up of CHO cells, however, when it comes to anchorage dependent cells especially those cells that are sensitive to shear effects, the alternative approach for their scale-up has been microcarrier technology. This approach is time consuming in developing the seed culture because cells have to attach to the microcarrier beads before the start of the bioreactor. The speed of agitation of the impeller has to be optimized for the cells to stay attached to the beads and start dividing.   Eppendorf has developed a packed-bed bioreactor system that provide a 3-D environment for the cells to grow and divide approaching a tissue like system inside the bioreactor. This investigation is a comparative study to establish basic data for the hypothesis that there will be no significant differences between the two types of vessels. A popular anchorage dependent cell line was selected for these experiment namely Vero Cells (African Green Monkey Kidney Cells). These cells are strongly anchorage dependent and there are no report of Vero cells grown in suspension culture. In addition Vero cells are the cells of choice for vaccine production. We will show  results based on daily measurements of glucose up-take and lactate production for a period of 21days with periodic addition of glucose and media exchanges.