Cells by Design: A Mini-Review of Targeting Cell Engineering Using DNA Microarrays

Abstract

Recent studies have demonstrated the utility of DNA microarray technology in engineering cellular properties. For instance, cellular adhesion, the necessity of cells to attach to a surface in order to to proliferate, was examined by comparing two distinct HeLa cell lines. Two genes, one encoding a type II membrane glycosylating sialyltransferase (siat7e) and the other encoding a secreted glycoprotein (lama4), were found to influence adhesion. The expression of siat7e correlated with reduced adhesion, whereas expression of lama4 correlated with increased adhesion, as shown by various assays. In a separate example, a gene encoding a mitochondrial assembly protein (cox15) and a gene encoding a kinase (cdkl3), were found to influence cellular growth. Enhanced expression of either gene resulted in slightly higher specific growth rates and higher maximum cell densities for HeLa, HEK-293, and CHO cell lines. Another investigated property was the adaptation of HEK-293 cells to serum-free media. The genes egr1 and gas6, both with anti-apoptotic properties, were identified as potentially improving adaptability by impacting viability at low serum levels. In trying to control apoptosis, researchers found that by altering the expression levels of four genes faim, fadd, alg-2, and requiem, apoptotic response could be altered. In the present work, these and related studies in microorganisms (prokaryote and eukaryote) are examined in greater detail focusing on the approach of using DNA microarrays to direct cellular behavior by targeting select genes.

CHO gene expression profiling in biopharmaceutical process analysis and design

“…Gene expression profiling allows largescale transcript data generation on well established and robust experimental platforms and can be used for the characterization of cell physiology, strain development, analysis of cell culture process conditions, media optimization, and process monitoring (Gupta and Lee, 2007;Jaluria et al, 2008;Seth et al, 2006). In the pursuit to develop highyield cell culture media, typically, statistical approaches such as principal component analysis (De Alwis et al, 2007) or design of experiments (Lin et al, 2007) are used for media and process optimization.…”

5.2 Functional -Omics for Cell Lines and Processes: The -Omics Technologies on the Example of CHO Cells

“…Such optimisation of processes can have significant impact on productivity and overall yield while reducing cost of production. In this context, the critical properties investigated include, e.g., antiapoptosis, proliferation, and productivity [58][59][60].…”

Are Normal Kidney Cells Influenced by Aspirin in Cell Culture?

“…HEK 293 cells were generated in 1973 by transformation of cultures of normal human embryonic kidney cells with sheared adenovirus 5 DNA in Alex van der Eb's laboratory in Leiden, The Netherlands. [7] Recent studies show that aspirin has also anti-cancer effects. This study was exerted to determine the effects of aspirin on proliferation of HEK cells in cell culture.…”