Efficient Expansion Of Suspension CHO Cells In Corning® PETG Erlenmeyer Flasks

By Zara Melkoumian, Ph.D. and Lori Romeo, Corning Incorporated, Life Sciences

The adoption of single-use technologies for biopharmaceutical manufacturing is a rapidly growing trend due to a number of advantages including the reduced risk of contamination, reduced capital costs, and faster time to market. Disposable Erlenmeyer flasks are traditionally made of polycarbonate (PC) and are commonly used as seed train vessels to expand cells grown in suspension. Corning offers a wide range of PC Erlenmeyer flasks. To broaden our Erlenmeyer flask portfolio beyond polycarbonate material, we introduced 2L, 3L, and 5L Erlenmeyer flasks made of bisphenol A(BPA)-free polyethylene terephthalate glycol (PETG). The addition of PETG flasks allows scientists to choose the material (PC or PETG) and flask size (2L, 3L, or 5L) that work best with their specific cell lines and applications.

In this study, we assessed the growth of CHO-S cells in Corning 2L, 3L, and 5L PETG flasks with different fill volumes using a typical batch culture protocol. Our results demonstrate efficient expansion and high viability of CHO-S cells in all three flask sizes during 6 days in culture.

We also compared the performance of our Corning PETG flasks to Competitor-1 PETG 2L and 2.8L flasks and Competitor-2 polypropylene (PP) 5L flasks. Our results show significantly higher viable cell yield of CHO-S cells in Corning 3L and 5L flasks compared to Competitor flasks of the similar size, especially with the larger culture volumes. This advantage is due to the more optimal design of Corning flasks that provides higher liquid surface area to culture volume ratio resulting in a better culture aeration and mixing.