A simple method to determine IgG light chain to heavy chain polypeptide ratios expressed by CHO cells.

OBJECTIVES: To establish a high-throughput method for determination of antibodies intra- and extracellular light chain (LC) to heavy chain (HC) polypeptide ratio as screening parameter during cell line development. RESULTS: Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO) TurboCell pools containing different designed vectors supposed to result in different LC:HC polypeptide ratios were generated by targeted integration. Cell culture supernatants and cell lysates of a fed batch experiment were purified by combined Protein A and anti-kappa affinity batch purification in 96-well format. Capture of all antibodies and their fragments allowed the determination of the intra- and extracellular LC:HC peptide ratios by reduced SDS capillary electrophoresis. Results demonstrate that the method is suitable to show the significant impact of the vector design on the intra- and extracellular LC:HC polypeptide ratios. CONCLUSION: Determination of LC:HC polypeptide ratios can give important information in vector design optimization leading to CHO cell lines with optimized antibody assembly and preferred product quality.

MicroRNAs as targets for engineering of CHO cell factories.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are strongly implicated in the global regulation of gene expression, and, in this regard, they consequently affect metabolic pathways on every regulatory level in different species. This characteristic makes miRNAs a promising target for cell engineering, and they could have multiple applications in medicine and biotechnology. However, a more profound, mechanistic understanding of miRNA action is needed for their potential to be translated into the development of industrially relevant cell factories with novel features. Here, we highlight the potential of miRNAs for the engineering of Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells, these being the most prevalent cell factory system for biopharmaceutical production. A key advantage of miRNAs, in contrast to most cell-engineering approaches that rely on overexpression of regulatory proteins, is that they do not compete for the translational machinery that is required to express the recombinant product. However, we also summarize the limitations and challenges that will have to be overcome to exploit fully miRNA technology.

Improvement of the energy metabolism of recombinant CHO cells by cell sorting for reduced mitochondrial membrane potential.

One of the major problems in process performance of mammalian cell cultures is the production of lactic acid. Cell specific glucose uptake rates usually correlate to glucose concentration and approximately 80% of the metabolised glucose is converted into lactic acid. As the mitochondrial membrane potential was shown to correlate to cell specific glucose uptake rates, we used Rhodamine 123, a lipophilic cationic dye for cell sorting to improve the energy metabolism of existing production cell lines. Two recombinant CHO cell lines with known differences in lactic acid production rate were used to evaluate Rhodamine 123 staining as a descriptor for glucose uptake rates and to determine whether it is possible to isolate subclones with altered metabolic properties. Such subclones would exhibit an improved process performance, and in addition could be used as models for genomic and metabolic studies. From the cell line with high lactate production, a subclone sorted for reduced mitochondrial membrane potential was found to have a lower specific lactate formation rate compared to the parental cell line in batch cultures. In addition, the glucose consumption rate was also reduced, while both the growth rate and the final cell concentration were increased. A subclone sorted for high mitochondrial membrane potential, on the other hand, had a higher glucose consumption rate, a higher lactate production rate and reduced growth. The potential of using flow cytometric cell sorting methods based on physiological activity for cell line optimisation is discussed.

A novel strategy for quantitative isoform detection directly performed from culture supernatant.

Currently, one of the most used techniques for the determination of isoform pattern analysis is isoelectric focusing. Routinely, this is performed by immunoblotting. Blotting of proteins after isoelectric focusing on IPG gels may cause several problems, such as protein loss by the blotting itself and band broadening, in some cases the immunostaining with antibodies might be problematic. In the present study, an alternative isoform prestaining method with CyDye fluors is presented. For this approach, a highly glycosylated fusion protein, Epo-Fc, was used consisting of two recombinant human erythropoietin attached to the Fc part of a human IgG(1) molecule. By using CyDye fluors, up to three samples can be focused on the same lane under identical electrophoretic conditions. A fundamental benefit of this technique is the ability to perform quantitative isoform pattern analysis directly from serum-free culture supernatant.

Comparison of fluidized bed and ultrasonic cell-retention systems for high cell density mammalian cell culture.

Economically viable biopharmaceutical production is to a high degree dependent on high product yields and stable fermentation systems that are easy to handle. In the current study we have compared two different fermentation systems for the production of recombinant protein from CHO cells. Both systems are fully scaleable and can be used for industrial high cell density bioprocesses. As a model cell line we have used a recombinant CHO cell line producing the enzyme arylsulfatase B (ASB). CHO cells were cultivated as adherent cell culture attached on Cytoline macroporous microcarrier (Amersham Biosciences, Sweden) using a Cytopilot Mini fluidized bed bioreactor (FBR, Vogelbusch-Amersham Biosciences, Austria) and as suspension culture using a stirred tank bioreactor equipped with a BioSep ultrasonic resonator based cell separation device (Applikon, The Netherlands). Both systems are equally well-suited for stable, long-term high cell density perfusion cell culture and provide industrial scalability and high yields. For products such as the recombinant ASB, high perfusion rates and therefore short product bioreactor residence times may be of additional benefit.

Transcriptional profiling of phenotypically different Epo-Fc expressing CHO clones by cross-species microarray analysis.

Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells exhibit large variabilities regarding growth, recombinant protein production and post-translational processing during cell line development and clone selection. To accelerate the development of stable high quality cell factories, new efficient strategies for cell screening and clone selection are required. In our work, we combined phenotypic characterisation of recombinant CHO clones during early cell line development with transcription profile analysis using cross-species microarrays. The objective was to identify genes or gene patterns that correlate with clone specific alterations in terms of productivity, sialylation capacity and stress resistance. In all high producer clones transcriptional profiling revealed a common enrichment of gene ontology categories related to protein metabolism, transcription, nucleus and nucleolus, whereas no common genes were differentially regulated in clones showing higher sialylation capacities. Furthermore, we identified predictive stress-related marker genes that were up-regulated in one clone without showing the corresponding phenotype at an early stage of development. Thus, we successfully applied gene expression profiling to allocate transcriptomal differences to specific phenotypes that changed during cell line development. These promising results will further increase our efforts to develop CHO specific microarrays that deliver information about the suitability of a clone candidate for industrial production.

Applicability of different fluorescent dyes for isoform quantification on linear IPG gels.

For biotechnological research, development, and production various analytical methods are required to determine the quality of the target product. In this context, the determination of isoforms is state-of-the-art; however, the majority of applied techniques are more qualitative than quantitative. To address this fact, we evaluated different post- and pre-electrophoretic staining dyes for their applicability on linear IPG gels using recombinant human erythropoietin as a model protein. Each evaluated dyes was able to detect all isoforms reproducibly, but CyDyes were found to be the most promising. Using CyDyes, up to three samples can be focused on the same lane under identical electrophoretic conditions, thus, a fast, reproducible, sensitive and quantitative isoform determination can be performed. To illustrate the practical relevance, quantitative CyDye technique was used for the characterization of our model protein, recombinant human Epo-Fc. This method makes it possible to determine the isoform pattern of nonpurified supernatants as well as purified proteins. We conclude that quantitative pre-electrophoretic staining IEF using CyDyes is a fast, simple, accurate method to determine isoforms, which can be used in research, development, and manufacturing for product quality analysis, e.g., clone screening, process optimization, and purification monitoring.

Protein-free transfection of CHO host cells with an IgG-fusion protein: selection and characterization of stable high producers and comparison to conventionally transfected clones.

In order to improve the current techniques of cell cultivation in the absence of serum, we have developed a protein-free transfection protocol for CHO cells, based on the Nucleofector technology. After starting with a heterogeneous pool of primary transfectants which express the fusion protein EpoFc, we isolated single clones and compared them with parallel clones generated by lipofection in serum-dependent cultivation. Our intensive characterization program was based on determination of specific productivity (q(p)) and analysis of genetic parameters. In two nucleofection experiments, transfection with 5 microg of DNA resulted in best productivities of the primary cell pools. After subcloning, the q(p) could be raised up to 27 pg x cells(-1) x day(-1). While the serum-dependent transfectants exhibited specific productivities up to 57 pg x cells(-1) x day(-1) in serum-dependent cultivation, a significant decrease that resulted in the range of q(p) of the protein-free transfectants was observed after switching to protein-free conditions. Investigation of genetic parameters revealed higher mRNA levels and gene copy numbers (GCN) for the protein-free adapted serum-dependent transfectants. Therefore, we assume that problems during protein-free adaptation (PFA) lead to a less efficient translation machinery after serum deprivation. We describe the generation of stable-producing recombinant CHO clones by protein-free transfection of a protein-free adapted host cell line, which reduces the risk of adverse clonal changes after PFA. The main advantage of this approach is the earlier predictability of clone behavior, which makes the generation of production clones by protein-free transfection, a viable and highly efficient strategy for recombinant cell line development.

Biochemical characterization of rhEpo-Fc fusion protein expressed in CHO cells.

One challenge in biotechnology industry is to produce recombinant proteins with prolonged serum half-life. One strategy for enhancing the serum half-life of proteins includes increasing the molecular weight of the protein of interest by fusion to the Fc part of an antibody. In this context, we have expressed a homodimer fusion protein in CHO cells which consists of two identical polypeptide chains, in which our target protein, recombinant human erythropoietin (rhEpo), is N-terminally linked with the Fc part of a human IgG(1) molecule. In the present study, culture supernatant of a stable clone was collected and purified by affinity chromatography prior characterization. We emphasized product quality aspects regarding the fusion protein itself and in addition, post-translational characterization of the subunits in comparison to human antibodies and rhEpo. However, overproduction of recombinant proteins in mammalian cells is well established, analysis of product quality of complex products for different purposes, such as product specification, purification issues, batch to batch consistency and therapeutical consequences, is required. Besides product quantification by ELISA, N-acetylneuraminic acid quantification in microtiterplates, quantitative isoform pattern and entire glycan profiling was performed. By using these techniques for the characterization of the recombinant human Epo-Fc (rhEpo-Fc) molecule itself and furthermore, for the separate characterization of both subunits, we could clearly show that no significant differences in the core glycan structures compared to rhEpo and human antibody N-glycans were found. The direct comparison with other rhEpo-Fc fusion proteins failed, because no appropriate data were found in the literature.

Process parameter shifting: Part I. Effect of DOT, pH, and temperature on the performance of Epo-Fc expressing CHO cells cultivated in controlled batch bioreactors.

The impact of process environment changes on process performance is one of the most crucial process safety issues when cultivating mammalian cells in a bioreactor. In contrast, directed shifting of process parameters can also be used as an optimization tool providing higher cell and product yields. Compared to other strategies that also aim on the regulation of cell growth and protein expression process parameter shifts can be easily performed without reagent addition or even genetic modification of the host cell line. However, a successful application of changing process conditions implies a profound understanding of the provoked physiological changes within the cells. In a systematic approach we varied the dissolved oxygen tension (DOT), pH, and temperature of CHO cultures in controlled bioreactors and investigated the impact on growth, productivity, metabolism, product quality and cell cycle distribution using a recombinant CHO cell line expressing the highly glycosylated fusion protein Epo-Fc. We found the reduction of cultivation temperature and the reduction of (external) pH to exert the most significant effects on process performance by mainly reducing cell growth and metabolism. With respect to the cell line used we identified a set of parameters capable of affecting cell proliferation in favor of an increased specific productivity and total product yield. The well directed alteration of the process environment has emerged as a tool adequate for further process optimization applying a biphasic cultivation strategy.

Process parameter shifting: Part II. Biphasic cultivation-A tool for enhancing the volumetric productivity of batch processes using Epo-Fc expressing CHO cells.

Regulation of cell growth and protein expression potentially results in a sustainable enhancement of the volumetric productivity in a fermentation process. Following a biphasic cultivation strategy the process initially passes through a cell proliferation phase to generate a sufficiently high viable cell mass. In the subsequent production phase cells are maintained viable and productive without significant cell proliferation leading to increased viable cell days and product yields. In a previous work we have shown that the well directed alteration of the process environment based on process parameter shifting is a promising tool to regulate cell growth and protein expression. In continuation of this work we investigated process parameters which have been identified to affect cell proliferation in favor of an increased specific productivity and total product yield in a series of biphasic batch cultivation experiments. In most of these processes the integral of viable cells and the specific productivity were increased leading to a significant improvement of both final product concentration and volumetric productivity. In addition, combined parameter shifts (pH 6.90/30 degrees C and pH 6.90/33 degrees C) exerted a synergistic effect on product quality. The loss of product sialylation which occurred at reduced temperatures was prevented by simultaneously reducing the external pH. In conclusion, biphasic cultivation based on combined shifting of process parameters is a suitable tool for controlling cell proliferation and protein expression of mammalian cells in a batch bioreactor leading to enhanced volumetric productivities and therefore offers an enormous potential for bioprocess optimization.