Your Intro with Mammalian Cell Culture

What Cell Lines?

In the biotechnology industry, CHO cells, or Chinese Hamster Ovary cells manufacture the majority of all biotherapeutics, accounting for 70%. Mammalian cell culture is commonly preferred over their prokaryotic and plant counterparts because of their superior posttranslational capabilities. There are two types of cell lines; primary and continuous. Primary cells divide 20-100 times before dying and usually grow in adhesion culture. Continuous cell lines are basically cancer cells and can divide indefinitely. The HeLa cell line is an example of a continuous cell line.

Suspension vs Adhesion Culture

When growing mammalian cells, suspension is better than adhesion culture in some cases, because suspension allows for a greater surface area that cells can produce a desired compound. The CHO cells lines allow for this method of growing. Adhesion cell culture is used for primary cell lines and especially fibroblasts, because a flat 2d monolayer allows for easy morphological identification on health.

However, adhesion cell culture is harder to scale up to produce biocompounds, as trypsin and centrifugation is needed. Suspension mammalian cell culture is great for growing large amounts of cells, because researchers can just grow them in large vats. A disadvantage of suspension is the cells may be harder to morphologically asess under a microscope for health. Moreover, shear stress and insufficient agitation can clump and damage sensitive cells like neurons. However, CHO cells are usually adapted.

Application of Mammalian Cell Culture