Vero or MDCK cells for influenza A virus production in microcarrier systems?

Each year the discussion on sufficient preparedness against an influenza pandemic is coming up. Several new approaches for effective vaccines are under investigation such as recombinant vaccines from baculovirus systems, virus like particles or designer cells as host cells. On the other hand, several processes using more established continuous cell lines are currently being licensed. The favorite cell lines herefore at the moment are: Vero and MDCK. These processes deal mostly with adherent cells, growing best on Cytodex microcarriers (GE Healthcare). Typically, data on cell growth and virus titers are found in literature. However, metabolism and cultivation in different bioreactors (stirred tank and wave) have not been discussed so far in a comparative study. Here, we present data for cultivations in roller bottles, 5L-stirred tank bioreactor as well as 2L-Wave bioreactors. Experiments in different serum-free media (SFM) are shown. Attachment properties in wave bioreactor conditions are discussed and cultivations with microcarrier concentrations of 2 g/L in serum containing GMEM medium (SCM) are compared. Differences between the two cell lines in metabolic data (glucose, lactate, glutamine, ammonia, glutamate) together with cell numbers and virus titers during cell growth and virus replication phase are analyzed to identify advantages and disadvantages of the presented cultivation conditions in respect to productivity