Effects of three-dimensional culturing in a fibrous matrix on cell cycle, apoptosis, and MAb production by hybridoma cells

The effects of culturing hybridoma cells in a three-dimensional (3-D) poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) fibrous matrix on cell cycle, apoptosis, metabolism, and monoclonal antibody (MAb) production were evaluated by comparing with two-dimensional (2-D) culturing on microcarrier and multiwell plate surfaces. The percentage of cells in the G1/G0 phase increased during the long-term culturing period of approximately 4 weeks. Compared to the 2-D culture systems, cells grown in 3-D matrices had higher MAb productivity for long-term culture. Decreasing serum content in the culture medium increased both MAb productivity and apoptosis. However, the 3-D culture had a greater increase in MAb productivity and a much lower apoptotic rate than the 2-D culture, especially at 0% serum. Most cells in the 3-D fibrous matrix formed large aggregates and were smaller than cells grown on a 2-D surface or in suspension. The smaller cell size allowed cells to survive better in the high-cell-density environment. The fibrous matrix also selectively retained healthy, nonapoptotic cells. These results suggested that the 3-D fibrous matrix contributed to growth arrest, protected cells to better resist low-serum environments, and reduced apoptosis, all of which contributed to the high viable cell density and volumetric MAb productivity in the long-term 3-D culture.     

抗调亡基因bcl-xl过表达提高工程细胞IVCC及目的蛋白表达的研究

用无血清培养基或化学成分明确的培养基生产治疗用重组蛋白已成为趋势。然而,在此条件下凝血因子、糖蛋白激素等微量糖蛋白的表达十分困难,其主要原因之一是在细胞培养过程中工程细胞大量凋亡造成的细胞密度低和生存期短。通过将早期抗凋亡基因导入工程细胞并进行过表达可改善工程细胞的活细胞密度积分（integral viable cell concentration,IVCC）,提高表达量。该研究将bcl-xl基因导入工程细胞,筛选其高表达细胞株,并验证工程细胞的抗凋亡能力,获得了稳定表达抗凋亡蛋白和目的蛋白的工程细胞株。与母细胞相比,稳定表达Bcl－xL的工程细胞的IVCC提高了50％,最终目的蛋白表达增加超过200％,显示抗凋亡基因bcl-xl的过表达可改善工程细胞在无血清悬浮培养过程中的细胞凋亡,提高表达量,为表达人凝血因子、糖蛋白激素等微量糖蛋白奠定了基础。     

Anti-apoptotic effects of the alpha-helix domain of silkworm storage protein 1

Apoptosis is a programmed cell death and a mechanism for the maintenance of multicellular organism homeostasis. In bioindustry, apoptosis during cell culture used to produce therapeutic proteins results in the reduction of productivity and quality. Thus, it is crucial to develop novel techniques and materials to inhibit apoptosis. Previous studies have found that storage protein 1 (SP1) has antiapoptotic effects on HeLa cells, but the part of SP1 responsible for the anti-apoptotic effects is unknown. Herein, the anti-apoptotic effects of the N-terminal, α-helix domain of SP1 (SPD1) were investigated by generating a cell line stably expressing SPD1. SPD1 expression conferred strong resistance to apoptosis induced by staurosporine (STS). SPD1 diminished the loss of the mitochondrial membrane potential and inhibited caspase-3 activation, suggesting that it acts as an upstream apoptosis inhibitor. SPD1 was also produced as a recombinant protein in E. coli and culture medium supplementation with recombinant SPD1 resulted in apoptosis inhibition in HeLa cells. The capability of SPD1 to penetrate cell membrane was also assessed, and the results show that it localized in the cytosol, as well as on the plasma membrane. This indicates that SPD1 is a cell-penetrating protein with high antiapoptotic activity. In conclusion, SPD1 is a novel protein responsible for the anti-apoptotic effect of SP1, and it can be considered as a new biomaterial that can minimize cell death and maximize productivity in biopharmaceutical industry. In addition, the miniaturization of SP1 in SPD1 can facilitate its practical usage as a culture medium supplement and cosmetic ingredient.     

Inhibitory effects of persistent apoptotic cells on monoclonal antibody production in vitro: Simple removal of non-viable cells improves antibody productivity by hybridoma cells in culture

Cells undergoing apoptosis in vivo are rapidly detected and cleared by phagocytes. Swift recognition and removal of apoptotic cells is important for normal tissue homeostasis and failure in the underlying clearance mechanisms has pathological consequences associated with inflammatory and auto-immune diseases. Cell cultures in vitro usually lack the capacity for removal of nonviable cells because of the absence of phagocytes and, as such, fail to emulate the healthy in vivo micro-environment from which dead cells are absent. While a key objective in cell culture is to maintain viability at maximal levels, cell death is unavoidable and non-viable cells frequently contaminate cultures in significant numbers. Here we show that the presence of apoptotic cells in monoclonal antibody-producing hybridoma cultures has markedly detrimental effects on antibody productivity. Removal of apoptotic hybridoma cells by macrophages at the time of seeding resulted in 100% improved antibody productivity that was, surprisingly to us, most pronounced late on in the cultures. Furthermore, we were able to recapitulate this effect using novel super-paramagnetic Dead-Cert™ Nanoparticles to remove non-viable cells simply and effectively at culture seeding. These results (1) provide direct evidence that apoptotic cells have a profound influence on their non-phagocytic neighbors in culture and (2) demonstrate the effectiveness of a simple dead-cell removal strategy for improving antibody manufacture in vitro.Key words: apoptosis, hybridoma, phagocytosis, viability, cell-culture, cell-death, antibody, nanoparticles     

‘Omics driven discoveries of gene targets for apoptosis attenuation in CHO cells

Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells are widely used in biopharmaceutical production. Improvements to cell lines and bioprocesses are constantly being explored. One of the major limitations of CHO cell culture is that the cells undergo apoptosis, leading to rapid cell death, which impedes reaching high recombinant protein titres. While several genetic engineering strategies have been successfully employed to reduce apoptosis, there is still room to further enhance CHO cell lines performance. ‘Omics analysis is a powerful tool to better understand different phenotypes and for the identification of gene targets for engineering. Here, we present a comprehensive review of previous CHO 'omics studies that revealed changes in the expression of apoptosis‐related genes. We highlight targets for genetic engineering that have reduced, or have the potential to reduce, apoptosis or to increase cell proliferation in CHO cells, with the final aim of increasing productivity.     

Regulating apoptosis in mammalian cell cultures

Cell culture technology has become a widely accepted method used to derive therapeutic and diagnostic protein products. Mammalian cells adapted to grow in bioreactors now play an integral role in the development of these biologicals. A major limiting factor determining the output efficiency of mammalian cell cultures however, is apoptosis or programmed cell death. Methods to delay apoptosis and increase the longevity of cell cultures can lead to more economical processes. Researchers have shown that both genetic and chemical strategies to block apoptotic signals can increase cell culture productivity. Here, we discuss various strategies which have been implemented to improve cellular viabilities and productivities in batch cultures.     

Inhibition of caspase activity delays apoptosis in a transfected NS/0 myeloma cell line

The productivity of NS/0 myeloma batch cultures is often compromised by the premature induction of apoptosis, now established to be the predominant method of cell death during culture decline. Caspase proteases have recently been shown to play a major role in the transmission of signals for apoptotic cell death. Using a specific inhibitor that targets a range of caspases (Z-VAD-fmk) we assessed whether inhibition of caspase activity could prolong the viability of NS&vbar;h=0 cells under conditions that cause apoptotic cell death in batch cultures. Z-VAD-fmk was found to significantly reduce apoptotic cell death (by approximately 50%) induced by cytotoxins and to preserve membrane integrity to a similar extent. In conditions of low serum, Z-VAD-fmk reduced certain features of apoptosis (e.g., DNA fragmentation), but only marginally improved viability. In medium-depleted batch cultures, Z-VAD-fmk afforded a delay of between 24 and 48 h in both the induction of apoptosis and loss of viability. Despite an apparent increase in viability in Z-VAD-fmk-treated NS&vbar;h=0 cultures, no improvement in productivity could be demonstrated, suggesting that at least some normal pathways for protein production are shut down upstream of caspase activation. An examination of mitochondrial membrane potential (Deltapsim) in Z-VAD-fmk-treated and untreated NS&vbar;h=0 cells revealed only a small initial difference (5%) in the levels of Deltapsim depolarization. Similar levels of mitochondrial dysfunction, despite caspase inactivity, may therefore be responsible for the comparable productivity in untreated and Z-VAD-fmk-treated cultures. Thus, this study suggests that, while a delay in cell death due to caspase inhibition may reduce problems associated with cellular disintegration, it does not permit productivity improvements in this type of culture.     

The effect of Bcl‐2, YAMA,and XIAP over‐expression on apoptosis and adenovirus production in HEK293 cell line

Many viruses induce cell death and lysis as part of their replication and dissemination strategy, and in many cases features of apoptosis are observed. Attempts have been made to further increase productivity by prolonging cell survival via the over‐expression of anti‐apoptotic genes. Here, we extend the study to investigate the association between virus replication and apoptosis, pertinent to large‐scale vector production for gene therapy. Infection of an HEK293 cell line with a replication defective type‐5‐adenovirus expressing a GFP reporter (Ad5GFP) resulted in rapid decline in viability associated with increased virus titer. The over‐expression of bcl‐2 resulted in improved cell resistance to apoptosis and prolonged culture duration, but reduced virus specific and total productivity. In contrast, the over‐expression of pro‐caspase‐3 (Yama/CPP32/apopain) resulted in reduced cell survival but increased virus productivity. The treatment of infected cells with caspase inhibitors support the preposition that caspase‐3 dependent apoptosis, and to a lesser degree caspase‐9 dependent apoptosis, represent important steps in virus production, thus implicating the intrinsic apoptosis pathway in the production of adenovirus from HEK293 cells. The suppression of apoptosis by the over‐expression of XIAP (inhibitors of caspase family cell death proteases) further shows that caspase‐mediated activation plays an important role in virus infection and maturation. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2009; 104: 752–765 © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Overexpression of bcl-2, apoptosis suppressing gene: Prolonged viable culture period of hybridoma and enhanced antibody production

Human bcl-2 DNA was introduced into mouse hybridoma 2E3 cells and expressed at a high level by using BCMGSneo vector, which reportedly amplifies as multiple copies in the cells independently of their chromosomes. The high expression of bcl-2 in BCMGSneo-bcl-2 transfectants was confirmed by western blotting. In batch cultures, the overexpression of bcl-2 raised the maximum viable cell density by 45%, delayed the initiation of apoptosis by 2 days, and prolonged the viable culture period by 4 days. The delayed initiation of apoptosis was detected by emergence of the ladder pattern on DNA electrophoresis and increase of the dead cell number. The bcl-2 transfectants produced lgG(1) fourfold per batch culture in comparison with 2E3 cells transfected with BCMGSneo but not with bcl-2: a little less than twofold due to the improved survival of the cells and more than twofold due to the enhanced lgG(1) production rate per cell of the bcl-2 transfectants. The method to engineer hybridoma cells genetically with bcl-2 using BCMGSneo vector for increasing viability and productivity would be widely applied for improving antibody productivity of hybridoma cultures. (c) 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Autophagy and its implication in Chinese hamster ovary cell culture

Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells, that are widely used for production of therapeutic proteins, are subjected to apoptosis and autophagy under the stresses induced by conditions such as nutrient deprivation, hyperosmolality and addition of sodium butyrate. To achieve a cost-effective level of production, it is important to extend the culture longevity. Until now, there have been numerous studies in which apoptosis of recombinant CHO (rCHO) cells was inhibited, resulting in enhanced production of therapeutic proteins. Recently, autophagy in rCHO cells has drawn attention because it can be genetically and chemically controlled to increase cell survival and productivity. Autophagy is a global catabolic process which involves multiple pathways and genes that regulate the lysosomal degradation of intracellular components. A simultaneous targeting of anti-apoptosis and pro-autophagy could lead to more efficient protection of cells from stressful culture conditions. In this regard, it is worthwhile to have a detailed understanding of the autophagic pathway, in order to select appropriate genes and chemical targets to manage autophagy in rCHO cells, and thus to enhance the production of therapeutic proteins.     

Changes in monoclonal antibody productivity of recombinant BHK cells immobilized in collagen gel particles

Animal cell perfusion high density culture is often adopted for the production of biologicals in industry. In high density culture sometimes the productivity of biologicals has been found to be enhanced. Especially in immobilized animal cell culture, significant increase in the productivity has been reported. We have found that the specific monoclonal antibody (MAb) productivity of an immobilized hybridoma cell is enhanced more than double. Several examples of enhancing productivities have been also shown by collagen immobilized cells. Immobilized cells involve some different points from non-immobilized cells in high density culture: In immobilized culture, some cells are contacted together, resulting in locally much higher cell concentration more than 10⁸ cells/ml. Information originating from a cell can be easily transduced to the others in immobilized culture because the distance between cells is much nearer. Here we have performed collagen gel immobilized culture of recombinant BHK cells which produce a human IgG monoclonal antibody in a protein-free medium for more than three months. In this high density culture a stabilized monoclonal antibody production was found with around 8 times higher specific monoclonal antibody productivity compared with that in a batch serum containing culture. No higher MAb productivity was observed using a conditioned medium which was obtained from the high density culture, indicating that no components secreted from the immobilized cells work for enhancing monoclonal antibody production. The MAb productivity by the non-immobilized cells obtained by dissolving collagen using a collagenase gradually decreased and returned to the original level in the batch culture using a fresh medium. This suggests that the direct contact of the cells or a very close distance between the cells has something to do with the enhancement of the MAb productivity, and the higher productivity is kept for a while in each cell after they are drawn apart.     

Essential role of optimal protein synthesis in preventing the apoptotic death of cultured B cell hybridomas

The monoclonal antibody productivity of cell culture systems is strongly dependent on the maintenance of hybridoma cell viability. We report that partial (<50%) and transient (3 h) inhibition of protein synthesis by cycloheximide or deprivation of an essential amino acid induces apoptosis (programmed cell death) in B cell hybridomas. This unusual mechanism of apoptosis induction is likely to play a significant role in limiting cell viability in batch and perfusion cultures of hybridomas and emphasizes the importance of constantly maintaining a near optimal rate of macromolecular synthesis by optimization of all culture parameters. Inhibition of apoptosis in hybridomas by cell engineering and other technologies should permit, in the near future, a significant increase in the antibody productivity of existing cell culture systems.Abbreviations CHX cycloheximide - EDTA ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid - FBS fetal bovine serum - MEM minimum essential medium - PBS phosphate buffered saline     

Dose-dependent reduction of apoptosis in nutrient-limited cultures of NS/0 myeloma cells transfected with the E1B-19K adenoviral gene.

It is now well documented that apoptosis represents the prevalent mode of death in lymphoid cultures and occurs spontaneously in late-exponential phase of batch cultures following nutrient exhaustion. In an attempt to enhance the cell survival of these cell lines, we have initially engineered nonproducing NS/0 myeloma cells with a vector expressing the adenoviral E1B-19K protein. NS/0 cells transfected with E1B-19K were found to be more resistant to apoptosis occurring in the late phase of batch culture and under stressful conditions such as cultivation in glutamine-free medium or following heat shock. In this study, we have characterised a number of NS/0 subclones constitutively expressing different levels of E1B-19K, as well as several subclones in which the expression of E1B-19K was regulated by a tetracycline-controllable gene switch. We have found that a threshold E1B-19K level was required in order to achieve protection against apoptosis. The extent of resistance against cell death induced by nutrient deprivation in glutamine-free medium and in the late phase of batch cultures correlated with the level of E1B-19K expression up to an optimal level where further increases in E1B-19K levels did not result in significant additional protection. To assess the effects of E1B-19K on antibody productivity, an apoptosis-resistant NS/0 clone was then transfected with a chimeric antibody construct. Despite their improved viability, the antibody productivity of E1B-19K clones in batch culture was not significantly improved. Moreover, while the use of E1B-19K considerably delayed cell death, cells eventually died by apoptosis. Surprisingly, E1B-19K had no beneficial effect on the efficiency of fusion of NS/0 myelomas and splenocytes for the generation of hybridoma cells. Furthermore, the resulting hybridomas, although expressing E1B-19K at levels comparable to the myeloma parent, were no longer resistant to apoptosis. This indicates that the ability of E1B-19K to prevent apoptosis is not only dose-dependent but also seems to be cell-type dependent.     

Cell death in bioreactors: a role for apoptosis

The incidence of apoptotic and necrotic cell death was compared in CHO, SF9 insect cells and murine plasmacytoma (J558L) and hybridoma (TB/C3) cells during in vitro cultivation in batch cultures. Acridine orange staining and fluorescence microscopy enabled the visualization of a classic morphological feature of apoptotic cell, the presence of condensed and/or fragmented chromatin. DNA gel electrophoresis was employed to show an additional characteristic of the process, the endonuclease-mediated fragmentation of DNA into multiples of 180 base pairs. The levels of apoptosis at the end of batch cultures of plasmacytoma and hybridoma cell lines were found to be 60% and 90% of total dead cells, respectively. However, employing the above-mentioned techniques, the biochemical and morphological features of apoptosis were not found in CHO and SF9 insect cells. Some factors affecting the induction of apoptosis during the batch culture of the hybridoma and plasmacytoma cell lines were identified. The most effective inducer was found to be glutamine limitation, followed by (in order of importance) serum limitation, glucose limitation, and ammonia toxicity. Blockage of the cell cycle of the plasmacytoma and hybridoma cells using thymidine resulted in the induction of apoptosis. This has important implications for the development of cell culture processes that minimize cell division and thereby increase specific productivity. (c) 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Inhibition of sodium butyrate-induced apoptosis in recombinant Chinese hamster ovary cells by constitutively expressing antisense RNA of caspase-3

Sodium butyrate (NaBu) can enhance the expression of genes controlled by some of the mammalian promoters, but it can also inhibit cell growth and induce cellular apoptosis. Thus, the beneficial effect of using a higher concentration of NaBu on a foreign protein expression is compromised by its cytotoxic effect on cell growth. To overcome this cytotoxic effect of NaBu, the expression vector of antisense RNA of caspase-3 was constructed and transfected to recombinant Chinese hamster ovary (rCHO) cells producing a humanized antibody. Using this antisense RNA strategy, rCHO cells (B3) producing a low level of caspase-3 proenzyme were established. When batch cultures of both B3 cells and control cells transfected with antisense RNA-deficient plasmid were performed in the absence of NaBu, both cells showed similar profiles of cell growth and antibody production. Compared with control cell culture, under the condition of 5 mM NaBu addition at the exponential growth phase, expression of antisense RNA of caspase-3 significantly suppressed the NaBu-induced apoptosis of B3 cells and extended culture longevity by >2 days if the culture was terminated at cell viability of 50%. However, compared with control cell culture, the final antibody concentration of B3 cell culture was not increased in the presence of NaBu, which may be due to the loss of cellular metabolic capability resulted from the depolarization of mitochondrial membrane. Taken together, this study suggests that, although expression of antisense RNA of caspase-3 does not improve antibody productivity of rCHO cells, it can suppress NaBu-induced apoptotic cell death of rCHO cells and thereby may reduce problems associated with cellular disintegration.     

Modulation of cell cycle for enhancement of antibody productivity in perfusion culture of NS0 cells

A prolonged period of high productivity at high cell density is desirable for industrial production of biopharmaceuticals. Previous efforts have shown that cessation of cell proliferation in low cell density culture results in increased productivity. We report here further results on multigenic manipulation of cell cycle and apoptosis to enhance productivity at high cell density. The NS0 6A1/4-9F myeloma cell line, which constitutively expresses a chimeric IgG4 antibody and inducibly expresses the p21(CIP1) cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor has been further engineered to constitutively overexpress the Y28 mutant Bcl-2 anti-apoptotic protein. The effects of overexpression of p21(CIP1) and Bcl-2 on cell proliferation, cell viability, and antibody production has been investigated in batch and continuous perfusion cultures. In both cultures the p21(CIP1) protein arrested cell proliferation, confirming the previous results in low-density culture of 4-fold increase in antibody production, whereas mutant Bcl-2 expression has not resulted in any significant improvement in cell viability of arrested cells. This study demonstrates that it is possible to enhance the productivity of relatively high-density continuous mammalian cell cultures by arresting the cell cycle in G1 phase.     

Apoptosis-resistant NS/0 E1B-19K myelomas exhibit increased viability and chimeric antibody productivity under cell cycle modulating conditions

Lymphoid cells expressing sufficient levels of Bcl-2 or E1B-19K are known to resist to induction of apoptosis in glutamine-free or nutrient-limited batch cultures. However, despite the increased viability and prolonged stationary phase achieved in batch culture, product yields are not necessarily improved. Here we have found that expression of E1B-19K in NS/0 myeloma cells cultivated in the presence of certain cell cycle modulators could result in a significant increase in MAb productivity as compared to untransfected control cells. The use of E1B-19K significantly enhanced cell survival in the presence of osmolytes (sorbitol, NaCl), DNA synthesis inhibitors (hydroxyurea, excess thymidine), and the cell culture additive OptiMAb™. E1B-19K myelomas cultivated in the presence of NaCl or OptiMAb™ accumulated in the G1 phase, while those arrested with excess thymidine were blocked in all phases. Interestingly, control NS/0 cells treated with these agents were found to die in a cell-cycle specific manner. Thus, while all G1 and most S phase cells quickly underwent apoptosis, G2/M cells remained alive and maintained MAb secretion for more than 10 days if supplied with adequate nutrients. For both control and E1B-19K cells, incubation with sorbitol or hydroxyurea was detrimental for MAb secretion, while addition of NaCl, excess thymidine and OptiMAb™ resulted in an increased specific MAb productivity as compared to the batch culture. However, this increase resulted in an improvement of final MAb yields only in the case of OptiMAb™. The extension of viability conferred by E1B-19K allowed to further improve the final MAb yield obtained using OptiMAb™ with a 3.3-fold increase for E1B-19K cells as compared to 1.8-fold for control NS/0 cells. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Inhibitory effects of persistent apoptotic cells on monoclonal antibody production in vitro

Cells undergoing apoptosis in vivo are rapidly detected and cleared by phagocytes. Swift

recognition and removal of apoptotic cells is important for normal tissue homeostasis

and failure in the underlying clearance mechanisms has pathological consequences

associated with inflammatory and auto-immune diseases. Cell cultures in vitro usually

lack the capacity for removal of non-viable cells because of the absence of phagocytes

and, as such, fail to emulate the healthy in vivo micro-environment from which dead cells

are absent. While a key objective in cell culture is to maintain viability at maximal levels,

cell death is unavoidable and non-viable cells frequently contaminate cultures in

significant numbers. Here we show that the presence of apoptotic cells in monoclonal

antibody-producing hybridoma cultures has markedly detrimental effects on antibody

productivity. Removal of apoptotic hybridoma cells by macrophages at the time of

seeding resulted in 100% improved antibody productivity that was, surprisingly to us,

most pronounced late on in the cultures. Furthermore, we were able to recapitulate this

effect using novel super-paramagnetic Dead-Cert?Nanoparticles to remove non-viable

cells simply and effectively at culture seeding. These results (1) provide direct evidence

that apoptotic cells have a profound influence on their non-phagocytic neighbours in

culture and (2) demonstrate the effectiveness of a simple dead-cell removal strategy for

improving antibody manufacture in vitro.