Shaken helical track bioreactors: Providing oxygen to high-density cultures of mammalian cells at volumes up to 1000 L by surface aeration with air.
A new scalable reactor was developed by applying a novel mixing principle that allows the large-scale cultivation of mammalian cells simply with surface aeration using air owing to increased liquid-gas transfer compared to standard stirred-tank bioreactors. In the cylindrical vessels (50 mL-1500 L) with a helical track attached to the inside wall, the liquid moved upward onto the track as the result of orbital shaking to increase the liquid-gas interface area significantly. This typically resulted in a 5-10-fold improvement in the volumetric mass transfer coefficient (k(L)a). In a 1500-L helical track vessel with a working volume of 1000 L, a k(L)a of 10h(-1) was obtained at a shaking speed of 39 rpm. Cultivations of CHO cells in a shaken 55-L helical track bioreactor resulted in improved cell growth profiles compared to control cultures in standard systems. These results demonstrated the possibility of using these new bioreactors at scales of 1000 L or more.
Zhang
Xiaowei
X
Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Faculty of Life Sciences, Laboratory of Cellular Biotechnology, CH J2-506, Station 6, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.
Stettler
Matthieu
M
Reif
Oscar
O
Kocourek
Andreas
A
Dejesus
Maria
M
Hacker
David L
DL
Wurm
Florian M
FM
D000388:Air; D000818:Animals; D019149:Bioreactors; D016466:CHO Cells; D002452:Cell Count; D049109:Cell Proliferation; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D006224:Cricetinae; D003412:Cricetulus; D010100:Oxygen / Q000378:metabolism*; D012212:Rheology
D010100:Oxygen