Experimental and numerical analysis of Chinese hamster ovary cell viability loss in mini-hydrocyclones

Mini-hydrocyclones have been increasingly used as retention devices to separate mammalian cells in the continuous cell culture. However, the cell viability loss after running through mini-hydrocyclones varies even for the same cell, e.g., the most widely used Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells. The reasons behind this problem are unclear. This paper presents a quantitative analysis of the CHO cell viability loss in mini-hydrocyclones with respect to the magnitude of shear stress. The viability loss of CHO cells is measured experimentally. The distributions of shear stress magnitude are revealed using a validated numerical model. The experimental results show that the cell viability loss increases with the increase of hydrocyclone cone angle or the inlet velocity. This result can be explained by the increased shear stress magnitude in the mini-hydrocyclones.

Automated summary

This study presents a quantitative analysis of the CHO cell viability loss in mini-hydrocyclones with respect to the magnitude of shear stress. The experimental results show that the cell viability loss of CHO cells increases with the increase of hydrocyclone cone angle or the inlet velocity.