Dextran-containing nanocarriers significantly promote greater anchorage dependent cell growth and density compared to microcarriers

Microcarriers containing cellulose-derived materials have been successfully applied to enhance the growth of anchorage-dependent cells maintained especially in bioreactors.  By replacing microcarriers with nanocarriers containing dextran, we hypothesized that the density of the anchorage-dependent cells would rise dramatically because the decreased particle size and associated enhancement in surface to volume ratios of nanoparticles contained within the nanoemulsion-based nanocarriers would increase the number of dextran molecules for the anchorage-dependent cells to attach to. Our studies utilized  self-assembly nanoemulsions (SANE) formed by a modified phase inversion temperature (PIT) process to produce dextran oil and surfactant-containing nanocarriers having mean particle sizes of 26 nm compared to microcarriers which were greater than 6000 nm. Our results demonstrated that dextran-containing nanocarriers allowed up to 10 fold greater cell density,12% more media lactate concentration, 83% higher cell lysate protein and 59% greater glucose concentration, used as a measure of polymer levels in the nanocarriers  compared to microcarriers. In conclusion, nanocarriers with increased numbers of dextran molecules, developed in these studies may be useful to further increase the production of anchorage-dependent animal cell-derived products or production of mass cell growth for other applications.