What is Hollow Fiber Cell Culture?
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What is Hollow Fiber Cell Culture?
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The culture of living tissues and cells is a laboratory technique that has been a basic tool for biomedical research since early in the previous century. Laboratory cell culture devices share two characteristics: 1) the cells are bound to a non-porous support and 2) scale up requires increasing the number of individual flasks used. Cells grown on a non-porous support require periodic splitting. Surface area is inherently limited in plastic cell culture ware. pH, glucose and waste levels are in constant flux.

A fundamentally different approach is now available! Modeled after the mammalian circulatory system hollow fiber cell culture offers the most in-vivo like manner to grow cells in any laboratory.

Hollow fibers are small tube-like filters approximately 200 microns in diameter whose molecular weight cut-off can be between 5kd and .1µm. These fibers are sealed into a cartridge shell so that cell culture medium pumped through the end of the cartridge will flow through the inside of the fiber while the cells are grown on the outside of the fiber. These fibers then create a semi-permeable br of defined molecular weight cut-off (MWCO) between the compartment in which the cells are growing and the medium is flowing. Since the cells are attached to a porous support (the hollow fiber) rather than a non-porous plastic dish nutrients are delivered from the bottom layer of cells on upwards. Splitting of the cells is not required and cultures can be maintained for many months of continuous production. If the secreted protein can be retained in the extra-capillary space it will accumulate to a concentration of up to 100 times higher than with conventional flask or roller bottle culture.

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