Advantages of CellMax^® Hollow Fiber Bioreactor Cartridges

• Metabolic waste and inhibitory factors are dialyzed away from the cell
• Autocrine and conditioning factors concentrate around the cells reducing serum requirements
• pH of growth medium is stable and physiological
• Tremendous surface area for cell attachment and provision of oxygen and nutrients
• Secreted products (protein & antibodies) concentrated in the small volume (10 ml - 60 ml) extracapillary space (ECS)
• Large cell numbers (up to 5 x 10¹⁰) can be conveniently handled
• Endotoxin load reduced
• Cells can be cultured for over 6 months
• Closed system allows safer handling of pathogenic cultures

Benefit to the cells

• Long term culture, stable microenvironment and cell specific autocrine factors allow cells to resemble tissue and organs
• Cells reach confluence stay attached and alive
• High cell densities (10⁸/mL) permit developmental interactions which become observable in cell co-cultivation cultures
• Stable microenvironment allows in vivo like cell growth

Disadvantages of CONVENTIONAL cell culture devices

• Cells grow on non-porous plastic surface in 2-dimensions
• Cells grow in their own metabolic waste
• Autocrine and conditioning factors are lost when cells are fed
• pH of growth medium can become very acidic - this is non-physiological
• Feast or Famine conditions for the cells