Monoclonal antibodies (mAb) are a common biopharmaceutical product. On industrial scale they are produced using recombinant technology, hybridoma technology is a more common way on laboratory scale. They are often grown in cell culture flasks and alternatively in spinner flasks and smaller disposable bioreactors. Cell culture medium and additives can influence cell growth and productivity, therefore new and more advanced media are emerging on a market. In our study, we wanted to compare different methods of cultivating hybridomas, to study the influence of different growth mediums and cultivation methods on the hybridoma growth and mAb production. Firstly we determined hybridoma growth in three different culture mediums: DMEM with 10 % FBS, CCM1 and TurboDoma with 2 or 4 mM glutamine and growth dynamics in spinner flask. Secondly, we determined their productivity in different culture mediums and cultivation systems. Hybridomas reached the highest cell density in DMEM with 10 % FBS, higher glutamine concentration was also found to be a positive influence on growth and viability. We failed to prove a better growth in spinner flask. Hybridomas produced the most mAb in TurboDoma culture medium. The effect of the culture medium on cell growth and mAb productivity was different for each hybridoma clone. We found that hybridoma production of mAb continued after stationary phase, high mAb concentrations were also measured in the cell death phase. Higher cell densities did not always mean higher amounts of produced mAb. In certain cases, the amount of antigen is a limiting factor in the ongoing testing of mAb production. For the actual determination of the amount of mAb, usual ELISA that determines mAb titre could be replaced with commercial ELISA to obtain mAb concentration.
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