Into the 21st century. Biotechnology and the pharmaceutical industry in the next ten years

Apoptosis and bioprocess technology

Optimisation of the production of biopharmaceuticals in animal cell lines has become a key area of research. The identification of apoptosis as the major mechanism of cell death during such processes has raised the importance of studies of cell death when implementing culture optimisation strategies. In this article we present an overview of the studies which have demonstrated the induction of apoptosis during the cultivation of industrially important animal cell lines. We also discuss studies which have shown that deprivation of factors such as amino acids, glucose, serum and oxygen are potent inducers of apoptosis in industrial cultures. The suppression of apoptosis under these conditions has been demonstrated by a number of recent reports, and we describe ways in which this knowledge may be applied in the development of novel solutions to some of the technical problems associated with the development of successful large scale culture process. The article concludes with a discussion of future directions for apoptosis research in bioprocess technology.