Rapid Identification of Chinese Hamster Ovary Cell Apoptosis and Its Potential Role in Process Robustness Assessment

Currently, the assessment of process robustness is often time-consuming, labor-intensive, and material-intensive using process characterization studies. Therefore, a simple and time-saving method is highly needed for the biopharmaceutical industry. Apoptosis is responsible for 80% of Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cell deaths and affects the robustness of the cell culture process. This study’s results showed that a more robust process can support cells to tolerate apoptosis for a longer time, suggesting that the robustness of the process could be judged by the ability of cells to resist apoptosis. Therefore, it is necessary to establish a rapid method to detect the apoptosis of CHO cells. In trying to establish a new method for detecting apoptosis in large-scale cell cultures, glucose withdrawal was studied, and the results showed that CHO cells began to apoptose after glucose was consumed. Then, the concentration of extracellular potassium increased, and a prolongation of apoptosis time was observed. Further study results showed that the process with poor robustness was associated with a higher proportion of apoptosis and extracellular potassium concentration, so potassium could be used as a biochemical index of apoptosis. The strategy we present may be used to expedite the assessment of process robustness to obtain a robust cell culture process for other biologics.