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Sodium butyrate enhances the acidic isoform content of recombinant human erythropoietin produced by Chinese hamster ovary cells

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Abstract

Sodium butyrate is commonly used in mammalian cell cultures to increase the productivity of recombinant proteins. A Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cell line producing recombinant human erythropoietin (rhEPO) was cultured in commercial medium. Addition of 0.5 mM butyrate inhibited the over-growth of the cells after the medium was changed from serum-added medium to serum-free medium. At the 6th day, the addition of butyrate lowered the transcriptional level of sialidases I, II, and III compared to that of control groups by 56, 87, and 59 %, respectively. Extracellular sialidase activity was decreased by 53 % by addition of butyrate. The inhibition of cell over-growth and the decrease of extracellular sialidase activity helped to increase the acidic isoform content of rhEPO expressed by this CHO cell strain.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by National Special Project of Key Technology of China (2009ZX09503-013) and Shanghai Leading Academic Discipline Project (B505). The authors thank Mr. John Goh for critically reviewing the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Bioreactor Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai, 200237, China

    Yingwei Liu, Xiangshan Zhou & Yuanxing Zhang

  2. Bioprocessing Technology Institute, Agency for Science, Technology and Research, 20 Biopolis Way, 06-01 Centros, Singapore, 138668, Singapore

    Zhiwei Song

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  1. Yingwei Liu
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  2. Xiangshan Zhou
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  3. Zhiwei Song
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  4. Yuanxing Zhang
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Correspondence to Zhiwei Song or Yuanxing Zhang.

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Liu, Y., Zhou, X., Song, Z. et al. Sodium butyrate enhances the acidic isoform content of recombinant human erythropoietin produced by Chinese hamster ovary cells. Biotechnol Lett 36, 907–911 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10529-013-1442-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10529-013-1442-9

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