Effect of temperature and agitation rate variation on the growth of NS0 cell line in monoclonal antibody production

The quality and yield of the monoclonal antibodies produced in a cGMP environment is heavily influenced by the bioprocess-related parameters which impact the cell growth and metabolism of the mammalian cell cultures. This research report describes a study conducted to examine the effects of varying temperature and RPM set points on viable cell density and viability of NS0 cultures. All cultures were grown in 250 mL shake flasks (working vol. 100 mL). To separately analyze the effects of temperature and agitation rate on NS0 cell metabolism, flask stage cultures were evaluated in triplicates at two cultivation temperatures (36 °C and 38 °C) and two agitation rates (120 RPM and 160 RPM) while controls were maintained at 37 °C and 140 RPM for both the conditions using an incubator. Flasks were sampled every 24 h and analyzed for viable cell density and % viability. Additional data was collected on pH, pO, pCO, osmolality, glucose, lactate, glutamate and glutamine levels in the culture. It was observed that variations in temperature has the greatest effect on viable cell density and viability and varying agitation rates had minimal effect on growth of cultures. A temperature set point of 38 °C is detrimental to the culture growth. The control set points proved to be optimal for this process.