Chlorella vulgaris Extract as a Serum Replacement That Enhances Mammalian Cell Growth and Protein Expression

Abstract

The global cell culture market is experiencing significant growth due to the rapid advancement in antibody-based and cell-based therapies. Both rely on the capacity of different living factories, namely prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells, plants or animals for reliable and mass production. The ability to improve production yield is of important concern. Among many strategies pursued, optimizing the complex nutritional requirements for cell growth and protein production has been frequently performed via culture media component titration and serum replacement. The addition of specific ingredients into culture media to modulate host cells' metabolism has also recently been explored. In this study, we examined the use of extracted bioactive components of the microalgae Chlorella vulgaris, termed chlorella growth factor (CGF), as a cell culture additive for serum replacement and protein expression induction. We first established a chemical fingerprint of CGF using ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry and evaluated its ability to enhance cell proliferation in mammalian host cells. CGF successfully promoted the growth of Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) and mesenchymal stem cells (MSC), in both 2D and 3D cell cultures under reduced serum conditions for up to 21 days. In addition, CGF preserved cell functions as evident by an increase in protein expression in CHO cells and the maintenance of stem cell phenotype in MSC. Taken together, our results suggest that CGF is a viable culture media additive and growth matrix component, with wide ranging applications in biotechnology and tissue engineering.

Proliferation and differentiation of primary bovine myoblasts using Chlorella vulgaris extract for sustainable production of cultured meat

“…Furthermore, when comparing CVE and DMEM, a trend of slightly higher viability with CVE than with DMEM was noted. Previous studies have shown that microalgal extracts may have antioxidant and serum‐substitution effects, which may have contributed to the slightly higher survival of PBMs in CVE culture than in DMEM cultures 26,27 …”

“…Previous studies have shown that microalgal extracts may have antioxidant and serum-substitution effects, which may have contributed to the slightly higher survival of PBMs in CVE culture than in DMEM cultures. 26,27 Additionally, in this study, we analyzed PBM differentiation after cultivation using microalgal extracts. For the induction of PBM differentiation, low myotube formation capacity was observed with the use of ISS (Figure 5).…”

In vitro culture of bovine fibroblasts using select serum-free media supplemented withChlorella vulgarisextract

“…We were intrigued by a recent study in which the authors reported growth effects of algae extract on mammalian cells (Ng et al, 2020). Ng and colleagues report that extract derived from Chlorella vulgaris promoted growth of Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) and mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) under certain conditions, some of which did not contain any serum.…”

Biotechnological and Technical Challenges Related to Cultured Meat Production

“…Higher cell growth [49,50] Rice protein hydrolysate CHO-320 Human HepG cells Protection against oxidation stress from hydrogen peroxide [51,52] Soy peptones CHO DG44 Improved cell production [53] Wheat hydrolysates CHO Improved cell viability [54] Marine cyanobacterium Spirulina maxima Human Lung Carcinoma Improved cell viability and proliferation [55] Chlorella vulgaris extract CHO-K1 and MSC Promoted cell growth [56] Rapeseed caked CHO-C5 Promoted cell growth [57] Silk sericin hydrolysate CHO and Hela cells Improved cell growth and proliferation [58] Whey protein CHO K1 JURKAT E6. 1 Improved cell viability and proliferation [59] The matrices shown in Table 2 are those that achieved promising results in cell proliferation and viability.…”