Influence of culture conditions on Vero cell propagation on non-porous microcarriers

Animal cell cultures are widely employed for the production of viral vaccines and for recombinant protein expression. The cell line Vero is a continuous, adherent cell line, which has been recommended by the World Health Organization for the production of human vaccines. For the large-scale production of vaccines, microcarriers, which are microspheres that serve as support for the cells, are being increasingly used. The use of microcarriers in stirred bioreactors allows high cell densities and, consequently, high virus titres to be achieved. With the aim of selecting appropriate culture conditions for the cultivation of Vero cells at high cell densities, in this work the influence of several variables (agitation rate, ratio of inoculated cells to microcarrier mass and fetal bovine serum concentration) on cell growth on Cytodex 1 microcarriers was studied. Under the best conditions determined, a comparison with Vero cell cultivation on Cytodex 3 microcarriers was carried out.