Media Screening for the Growth and Transfection of Human Hybrid F2N78 Cell Line

A human hybrid cell line named F2N78 was developed by somatic fusion of human embryonic kidney (HEK293) cells and Namalwa cells. Human cells have a human-like glycosylation profiles, so that they should be efficient for the production of human therapeutic proteins considering efficacy and stability. As a result of cell fusion, F2N78 cell line has the characteristics of both HEK 293 and Namalwa cells, such as high transfection efficiency, ease of suspension culture, and continuous expression of EBNA1 gene by EBV genome. In order to be used in commercial processes, development of optimal media for the growth and transfection of this novel host cell line is necessary. For that reason, development of an optimized medium for F2N78 cell line was performed in this study. Various media such as EXCELL 293, CD OPTI CHO, MPC002 were compared for the growth and transfection of F2N78 as well as HEK293. It was found that MPC002 medium provided the best results for growth of F2N78 cells and the modification and optimization of MPC002 medium will be carried out further.