Culture Of Adherent Cells On Microcarriers In The Wave Bioreactor

The WAVE Bioreactor™ was originally designed for suspension cultures of human, animal, plant and insect cells, as well as for bacterial and fungal cultures. However, it has recently been suggested that it may be suitable also for adherent cell cultures using microcarriers. The WAVE Bioreactor provides a disposable bag system that requires no cleaning or sterilization, making it particularly suitable for GMP production of therapeutic cells such as, T-lymphocytes or mesenchymal stromal/stem cells (MSCs). Many therapeutic cells are adherent in nature (e.g. MSCs) and therefore need to attach to a suitable surface to allow expansion. Microcarriers are small beads, usually 100-300 µm in diameter, designed to allow growth of adherent cells while in suspension.

Today MSCs are usually cultured as monolayer in T-flasks. This method requires large numbers of T-flasks for reaching satisfactory cell numbers and requires labor intense handling and considerable space for storage. The microcarrier culture can be handled in a single WAVE Cellbag™ and therefore labor is reduced as is the risk of contamination. The aim of our study is to develop reliable protocols for culturing adherent cells in the WAVE Bioreactor, using Canine Kidney (MDCK) cells as a model system.