Technical Material

Effect of growth factor supplementation on CHO cell culture

Growth factors such as insulin, insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I) and its analogs, have all been shown to enhance cell growth, as well as antibody production, in CHO cells cultures (1-4). LONG®R3IGF-I (Sigma) is a recombinant analog of IGF-I that has been specifically engineered for the enhancement of cell culture performance (5). It is more biologically  potent  in  vitro than  either  insulin  or  native  IGF-I  and  has  been  shown  to  significantly  increase recombinant protein production (1, 2).

Here, we present the effect of the insulin-like growth factor LONG®R3IGF-I on both cell culture growth (viable cell density and viability) and antibody production (IgG titer). Although the magnitude of the effect depends on the specific cell clone, addition of growth factor can lead to an increase of up to 2-4 fold in cell culture performance. It can also assist in cell line adaptation when switching from one type of media to another (for guidelines on adaptation procedures, please refer to our ‘CELLiST Liquid Media Preparation & Cell Adaptation Guidelines’).

The graphs below shows the effect of growth factor addition on viable cell density, viability and IgG titer, in CHO - DG44 cell line. As can be seen from the graphs, addition of growth factor increased max viable cell density (VCD) by 80% and IgG titer by >40%.

References:

1) Kim, D.Y., et al. (2005). Effects of supplementation of various medium components on Chinese hamster ovary cell cultures producing recombinant antibody. Cytotechnology. 47(1-3):37–49.

2) Morris, A.E. and Schmid, J. (2000). Effects of Insulin and LongR3 on Serum‐Free Chinese Hamster Ovary Cell Cultures Expressing Two Recombinant Proteins. Biotechnol Progress. 16: 693-697.

3) Lim, U.M., et al. (2013). Identification of Autocrine Growth Factors Secreted by CHO Cells for Applications in Single-Cell Cloning Media. Journal of Proteome Research 12 (7), 3496-3510.

4) Miki H. and Takagi M. (2015). Design of serum-free medium for suspension culture of CHO cells on the basis of general commercial media. Cytotechnology. 67(4):689–697.

5) LONG®R3IGF-I growth factor, Sigma-Aldrich: https://www.sigmaaldrich.com/safc/bioprocess/long-r3-igf-i.html