Repeated-batch cultures of baby hamster kidney cell aggregates in stirred vessels

Natural aggregates of Baby Hamster Kidney cells were grown in stirred vessels operated as repeated-batch cultures during more than 600 hours. Different protocols were applied to passaging different fractions of the initial culture: single cells, large size distributed aggregates and large aggregates. When single cells or aggregates with the same size distribution found in culture are used as inoculum, it is possible to maintain semi-continuous cultures during more than 600 hours while keeping cell growth and viability. These results suggest that aggregate culture in large scale might be feasible, since a small scale culture can easily be used as inoculum for larger vessels without noticeable modification of the aggregate characteristics. However, when only the large aggregates are used as inoculum, it was shown that much lower cell concentrations are obtained, cell viability in aggregates dropping to less than 60%. Under this 'selection' procedure, aggregates maintain a constant size, larger than under batch experiments, up to approximately 400 hours; after this time, aggregate size increases to almost twice the size expected from batch cultures.