Monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) are becoming increasingly important as research tools due to their high specificity and improved side effect profile. As demand for MAbs has increased, so has the pressure to develop alternative in vitro production methods that will reduce animal use, streamline downstream processing, reducing variability in production runs.
Current methods available to generate research quantities of MAbs (10mg to 500mg) are static tissue culture, spinner or roller systems, and ascites fluid from mice. Integra claim the CELLine yields antibody concentrations comparable to that of ascites. One CELLine flask can be used to produce as much antibody as 12 mice.
Average yields of monoclonal antibodies range from 1 to 5mg/ml even over extended periods of time. Integra claim that the harvest volumes also result in antibody concentrations 50 to 100 times higher than both roller bottles and tissue culture flasks.Using MAb media in a CELLine, antibody yields average between 30 to 150mg of antibody every two weeks.
In vivo type cultivation of different cell types depends to a large extent on the chosen cultivation system. CELLine technology mimics the physiological conditions within the body enabling production of more organotypic cell morphologies, sometimes even to the extent of 3-dimensional cell growth.
Ideal for laboratory scale applications using suspension cells or adherent cells in connection with microcarriers, high production yields together with a 95 per cent reduction in media supplement requirements enable further cost and time-savings in downstream processing steps.
In addition, the Celline reduces the need for high capital investments in cell culture instrumentation or handling large amounts of cell culture disposables in order to be able to obtain milligram amounts of a designated protein.