FULLY-AUTOMATED ROLLER BOTTLE HANDLING-SYSTEM FOR LARGE-SCALE CULTUREOF MAMMALIAN-CELLS

A fully automatic and continuous cell culture system based on roller b ottles is described in this paper. The system includes a culture rack storage station for storing a large number of roller bottles filled wi th culture medium and inoculated with mammalian cells, mass-handling f acility for extracting completed cultures from the roller bottles, and replacing the culture medium. The various component units of the syst em were controlled either by a general-purpose programmable logic cont roller or a dedicated controller. The system provided four subsequent operation modes: cell inoculation, medium change, harvesting, and medi um change. The operator could easily select and change the appropriate mode from outside of the aseptic area. The development of the system made large-scale production of mammalian cells, and manufacturing and stabilization of high quality products such as erythropoietin possible under total aseptic control, and opened up the door for industrial pr oduction of physiologically active substances as pharmaceutical drugs by mammalian cell culture. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.