Optimization of the Rocking Speed and Angle of a Perfusion Bioreactor for T Cell Culture

For autologous T cell therapy to be effective, T cells sampled from a patient need to be grown in sufficient quantity before being injected back. The typical cell number required for an 80 kg patient is 8.109 cells. Achieving such a dose with T flasks, while maintaining cell health, poses logistical challenges that can become intractable when the number of patients rises. This is why the Xuri™ Cell expansion system W5, a rocking platform which enables automated high cell density culture in a close environment, is used instead of conventional bioreactors. After a 14 day culture with the Xuri W5, cell concentrations of 1.107cells/mL in a 1 L volume have been consistently reached and cells exhibited a healthy phenotype. These experiments have been performed with rocking speed and angle set at 10 rpm, and 6° respectively. In the study presented here, we investigate the influence of these parameters on the cell growth kinetics and health in order to select the settings that optimize T cell growth, thereby allowing for faster expansion.