Cell engineering and cultivation of chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells

Mammalian cell lines are important host cells for the industrial production of pharmaceutical proteins owing to their capacity for correct folding, assembly and post-translational modification. In particular, Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells are the most dependable host cells for the industrial production of therapeutic proteins. Growing demand for therapeutic proteins promotes the development of technologies for high quality and productivity in CHO expression systems. The following are fundamentally important for effective production. 1) Construction of cultivation process. The CHO-based cultivation process is well established and is a general platform of therapeutic antibody production. The cost of therapeutic protein production using CHO cells is equivalent to that using microbial culture. 2) Cell line development. Recent developments in omics technologies have been essential for the development of rational methods of constructing a cell line. 3) Cell engineering for post-translational steps. Improvement of secretion, folding and glycosylaiton is an important key issue for mammalian cell production systems. This review provides an overview of the industrial production of therapeutic proteins using a CHO cell expression system.