Characterization And Analysis Of Dissolvable Microcarrier Byproducts

By Jennifer Weber, Yue Zhou, Kathleen Krebs, Jeffery Scibek, Jinlin Peng, Liepin Huang, and Steve Caracci, Corning Incorporated, Life Sciences

Microcarriers enable efficient cell scale-up in controlled bioreactors. Effective cell recovery from microcarriers often requires the use of concentrated enzymes, extended treatment times, and continuous centrifugation/filtration cycles, which can negatively affect cell health and recovery yield. To address these challenges, Corning Life Sciences developed a calcium-crosslinked polygalacturonic acid (PGA) microcarrier that can be dissolved using EDTA and pectinase. Here we describe the characterization of the PGA polymer, dissociation reagents, and the byproducts of bead dissolution and evaluate their impact on subsequent cell growth.