• KSBB Journal
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.489-496
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• 2000

Several culture systems including batch, two-stage CSTR, semi-fed batch, and two-stage cyclic fed-batch were investigated for the efficient production of the Fab fraction of PDC-E2 specific human monoclonal antibody using high cell density recombinant E. coli. A two-phase batch system and a two-stage continuous system were examined to overcome plasmid instability problems, by separating the growth and the production stages. The cell density and productivity of the two-stage continuous culture was better than that of the two-phase batch fermentation. In the two-stage continuous culture system with DO-stat, the cell growth and the productivity were superior to those of the system without the DO control. Also, almost total plasmid stability was maintained in the two-stage continuous culture system. Modified M9 medium was selected as an optimum feeding medium for the fed-batch process, and the optimum C/N ratio determined to be 2:3. The optimum feeding rate was $0.6g/\ell/hr$ for a constant feeding strategy in semi-fed batch system. When the feeding medium was fed by pulsing, it was observed that more frequent pulsing resulted in improved cell growth. The linear feeding method was the most efficient of the various feeding methods tested. Finally, high cell density culture using a two-stage cyclic fed batch system with pH-stat was tried because the linear feeding method showed limitations in terms of obtaining high cell densities, and a cell density of $54 g/\ell$ was achieved. It was concluded that the two-stage cyclic fed batch system was the most efficient system for high cell density culture of the systems tested. However, productivity improvements were lower than expected due to the extremely high accumulations of acetate, although the low levels of residual glucose were maintained.