INSECT CELL CULTIVATION TECHNIQUES FOR THE PRODUCTION OF HIGH-VALUED PRODUCTS

The large scale cultivation of insect cells will likely play an increasingly important role for the commercial production of bioproducts. While much research work has been done on the engineering aspects of insect cell suspension culture, many questions remain unanswered (i.e. the nature of bubble damage in sparged reactors, shear sensitivity and adaptation of cells; the use of serum-free medium). In addition, insect cell immobilization may become a suitable technique for enhancing cell densities and product concentrations. This article presents a brief critical review of the development of insect cell suspension culture techniques for the production of insect pathogenic viruses and recombinant proteins. The problems of culturing microencapsulated insect cells, infected with a temperature sensitive baculovirus, also is discussed.