Optimization of growth surface parameters in microcarrier cell culture

Abstract

The microcarrier technique for the growth of anchorage‐dependent animal cells has been studied and significantly improved. Excellent cell growth (up to 5 × 10⁶ cells/ml) has been obtained on a newly synthesized microcarrier optimized with respect to substitution with a positively charged exchange moiety. Various parameters of microcarrier culture were examined in order to identify the source of reported “toxicities” associated with this technique. The hypothesis that bead adsorption of nutrients is responsible for such “toxicities” was found to be inconsistent with our results, which suggest that microenvironmental effects are critical for cell propagation on microcarriers.