Fixed-bed reactors for cultivation of mammalian cells can be used for a variety of applications such as the production of monoclonal antibodies with hybridoma cells or proteins for diagnostic or therapeutic use with recombinant, mostly anchorage-dependent animal cells, production of retroviral vectors, as well as for cultivation of tissue cells for artificial organs.
In Subheading 2. , suppliers for fixed-bed reactor systems and macroporous carriers as well as components of a lab-scale fixed-bed reactor and important mass balance equations are presented. Subheading 3. , covers topics such as selection of suitable carriers, procedures for cultivation in lab-scale fixed-bed reactors (setting up of the reactor, autoclaving, sterility test, preparation of seed culture and inoculation, start-up and process monitoring during culture, batch and continuous operation, activities after the culture), and additional requirements for larger reactor volumes (setup and sterilization, “inoculation during cultivation strategy”).