Expression of Recombinant Antibodies

Frenzel, André; Hust, Michael; Schirrmann, Thomas

Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells are the most common cells applied in the commercial production of biopharmaceuticals. This cell line isolated in the 1950s gave rise to a range of genetically different progeny, such as K1-, DukX B11-, DG44cell lines and others which differ in protein product quality and achievable yield. In addition, Per.C6 cells, mouse myeloma NS0 cells, baby hamster kidney (BHK) cells and the human embryonic kidney cell line HEK293 received regulatory approval for recombinant protein production. Although glycosylation patterns of mammalian glycoproteins are very similar to that in humans (150) , even small differences can influence pharmacokinetics and effector functions of antibodies. Alternative designer cell lines with improved glycosylation patterns have been generated, for example human neuronal precursor cell line AGE1.HN (Probiogen, Berlin, Germany) supporting specific and complex glycostructures for the production of antibodies which require specific posttranslational modifications or suffer from instability or susceptibility for proteolysis (151) . CHO cell variant Lec13 (Glycotope) also produces human IgG1 with N -Linked glycans lacking fucose which improves on Fc-gammaRIII binding and ADCC (152) .