Insect cells (IC) and particularly lepidopteran cells are an attractive alternative to mammalian cells for biomanufacturing. Insect cell culture, coupled with the lytic expression capacity of baculovirus expression vector systems (BEVS), constitutes a powerful platform, IC-BEVS, for the abundant and versatile formation of heterologous gene products, including proteins, vaccines and vectors for gene therapy. Such products can be manufactured on a large scale thanks to the development of efficient and scaleable production processes involving the integration of a cell growth stage and a stage of cell infection with the recombinant baculovirus vector. Insect cells can produce multimeric proteins functionally equivalent to the natural ones and engineered vectors can be used for efficient expression. Insect cells can be cultivated easily in serum- and protein-free media. A growing number of companies are currently developing an interest in producing therapeutics using IC-BEVS, and many products are today in clinical trials and on the market for veterinary and human applications. This review summarizes current knowledge on insect cell metabolism, culture conditions and applications.
Several microcarrier systems were screened with Sf‐9 and High‐Five cell lines as to their ability to support cell growth and recombinant (β‐galactosidase) protein production. Growth of both cell lines on compact microcarriers, such as Cytodex‐1 and glass beads, was minimal, as cells detached easily from the microcarrier surface and grew as single cells in the medium. Cell growth was also problematic on Cytopore‐1 and ‐2 porous microcarriers. Cells remained attached for several days inside the microcarrier pores, but no cell division and proliferation were observed. On the contrary, insect cells grew well in the interior of Fibra‐Cel disks mainly as aggregates at points of fiber intersection, reaching final (plateau) densities of about 4 × 106 (Sf‐9) and 2.7 × 106 (High‐Five) cells mL‐1 (8 × 106 and 5.5 × 106 cells per cm2 of projected disk area, respectively). Their growth was described well by the logistic equation, which takes into account possible inhibition effects. β‐Galactosidase (β‐gal) production of Sf‐9 cells on Fibra‐Cel disks (infected at 3.3 × 106 cells mL‐1) was prolonged (192 h), and specific protein production was similar to that of high‐density free cell infection. Cultispher‐S microcarriers were found to be a very efficient system for the growth of High‐Five cells, whereas no growth of Sf‐9 cells took place for the same system. Concentrations of about 9 × 106 cells mL‐1 were reached within 120 h, with cell growth in both microcarriers and aggregates, appearance of cellular bridges between microcarriers and aggregates, and eventual formation of macroaggregates incorporating several microcarriers. Specific protein productions after β‐gal baculovirus infection at increasing cell concentrations were almost constant, thus leading to elevated volumetric protein production: final β‐gal titers of 946, 1728, and 1484 U mL‐1 were obtained for infection densities of 3.4, 7.2, and 8.9 × 106 cells mL‐1, respectively.
In this work, a mathematical model of a fixed-bed bioreactor for the animal cell culture is developed to study the optimization and the scale-up of this bioreactor. Several cell populations are considered: the cells in suspension in the medium at the beginning of the process and the adhering cells to the fixed-bed. The model includes a capture rate kinetic of the cells in suspension by the fixed-bed and a spatial distribution of the nutrient and by-product concentrations in the fixed-bed. Therefore, the model reports the potential gradients of the cell concentrations in the fixed-bed. Some model parameters are experimentally identified and the model is validated using experimental data obtained with two pilot bioreactors. The model is used as a simulation tool to study the influence of the bioreactor design or the velocity field of the culture medium on the cell concentration gradients in the fixed-bed bioreactor and to optimize the operating conditions, the design, and the scale-up of this bioreactor.
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