Performance of mammalian cell culture bioreactor with a new impeller design

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Abstract
To improve the oxygen transfer in a mammalian cell bioreactor, a new type of impeller consisting of a double‐screen concentric cylindrical cage impeller (annular cage impeller in short) was designed and its mass transfer rate evaluated. This new impeller design increases the specific screen area, and the convective mass transfer rate through the annular cage was significantly increased. The oxygen transfer rates with the new impeller and the commercially available cell‐lift impeller (CelliGen by New Brunswick Scientific Co.) were evaluated and their performance compared at various rates of aeration and agitation. The results showed that with the new impeller, the oxygen transfer rate was increased by 19% in water and 21% in cell‐free culture medium supplemented with 10% horse serum, the total hybridoma cell concentration was increased to 3.4 × 107 cells/mL, and the IgG1 subtype monoclonal antibody (MAb) product concentration was also increased to 512 mg/L in perfusion culture of murine hybridoma cell line 62′D3. These improvements in oxygen transfer rate, cell concentration, and MAb product concentration are all very significant. The mass transfer resistance in the cell‐lift impeller system was found to be mainly due to the surface area of the single‐screen cage impeller. The new annular cage impeller not only provided the increased surface area for convective oxygen transfer but also protected cells from hydrodynamic shear damage, thereby achieving a significant bioprocess improvement in terms of higher viable cell concentration, higher product concentration, and higher oxygen transfer rate in the mammalian cell bioreactor system.