Influence of ammonium ion and glucose on mAb production in suspension and fixed bed hybridoma cultures

Previous work indicated that mAb production by a mouse-mouse hybridoma, grown in a fixed bed of macroporous glass beads with a variable feed glutamine concentration, was correlated only to QvO2. The work reported in this study further investigated the metabolic parameters modulating mAb production using metabolic data from a continuous stirred tank reactor (CSTR) to interpret the behaviour of cells grown in a fixed bed bioreactor (FBR). For a FBR culture grown with a feed glutamine concentration of 3 mmol l−1, QvmAb was correlated to QvO2 and QvGln. However, if the feed glutamine concentration was switched between 1 and 3 mmol l−1, the above relationship did not hold, probably because QvO2 was at or near its maximum value. For both the FBR and CSTR, switches in the feed glutamine concentration suggested that maximum QvmAb values were associated with glucose concentrations above 12.8 mmol l−1 and an ammonium concentration of 2.0–2.5 mmol l−1.