Defining process design space for monoclonal antibody cell culture

The concept of design space has been taking root as a foundation of in‐process control strategies for biopharmaceutical manufacturing processes. During mapping of the process design space, the multidimensional combination of operational variables is studied to quantify the impact on process performance in terms of productivity and product quality. An efficient methodology to map the design space for a monoclonal antibody cell culture process is described. A failure modes and effects analysis (FMEA) was used as the basis for the process characterization exercise. This was followed by an integrated study of the inoculum stage of the process which includes progressive shake flask and seed bioreactor steps. The operating conditions for the seed bioreactor were studied in an integrated fashion with the production bioreactor using a two stage design of experiments (DOE) methodology to enable optimization of operating conditions. A two level Resolution IV design was followed by a central composite design (CCD). These experiments enabled identification of the edge of failure and classification of the operational parameters as non‐key, key or critical. In addition, the models generated from the data provide further insight into balancing productivity of the cell culture process with product quality considerations. Finally, process and product‐related impurity clearance was evaluated by studies linking the upstream process with downstream purification. Production bioreactor parameters that directly influence antibody charge variants and glycosylation in CHO systems were identified. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2010;106: 894–905. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Noradrenaline as a putative neurotransmitter mediating hypotension—induced FOs—like immunoreactivity in the supraoptic nucleus of the rat

Hemorrhage or hypotension induces extensive Fos-like immunoreactivity in the magnocellular neurosecretory cells in the supraoptic nucleus of the hypothalamus in rat,especially in the vasopressin neurons.The present study was to explore the neurotransmitter mediating this effect,Microinfusion of the alpha-adrenergic blocker into the supraoptic nucleus reduced the hypotension-induced FOs.whereas beta-antagonist did not affect it significantly.Alaha1-and alpha2-antagonist,prazosin and yohimbine,both reduced the Fos-Positive cell counts.However,the effective dosage of yohimbine was much larger,Alpha1-agonist,methoxamine,induced abundant Fos-like immunoreactivity in the vasopressin cells in this nucleus,while beta-and alpha2-agonist did not elicit such effect.Administration of the noradrenergic re-uptake inhibitor desipramine,to this nucleus to locally accumulate the spontaneously released noradrenaline from the nerve terminals also induced Fos expression,mostly in the vasopressin cells.