Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO) cells are a fundamental component in biomedical research and biotechnology. They advance scientific understanding and develop innovative medical treatments. Their widespread adoption highlights their importance in producing many biological medicines today.
What Are Hamster Cells?
Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO) cells are specialized cell lines grown in laboratories, not directly from pet hamsters. Derived from Chinese hamster ovaries in the 1950s, Theodore Puck isolated the initial CHO-K1 line. This line has been multiplied and engineered for various applications.
CHO cells are immortal, growing indefinitely in a controlled laboratory environment. Their mammalian origin is a key advantage for producing complex human-like proteins. These cells are highly engineered to optimize growth, productivity, and safety for laboratory and industrial use.
Why They Are Indispensable Tools
CHO cells are widely used in research and industrial production for their unique advantages. They are robust and easily grown in large quantities in bioreactors, essential for large-scale manufacturing. CHO cells adapt to various environmental conditions, including oxygen levels, temperature, and pH, making them resilient in diverse culture settings.
A primary benefit of CHO cells is their ability to produce complex human proteins with correct modifications, like glycosylation. Glycosylation, adding sugar molecules to proteins, is important for protein function, stability, and recognition by the human body. Unlike bacterial systems, CHO cells perform human-like glycosylation, ensuring therapeutic proteins are active and well-tolerated.
CHO cells have a favorable safety profile compared to human cell lines, as they naturally lack certain human viruses, reducing viral contamination risk in therapeutic products. They are also highly amenable to genetic engineering, allowing modification to enhance protein production and improve product characteristics. These attributes make CHO cells effective “mini-factories” for biological products, yielding significant quantities, often 3-10 grams per liter of cell culture.
Major Contributions to Medicine
CHO cells have significantly impacted modern medicine by enabling the production of various biopharmaceuticals. They are extensively used in vaccine production, contributing to public health against infectious diseases. For example, CHO cells produce recombinant subunit vaccines for diseases like human papillomavirus (HPV) and influenza.
These cells are also important in manufacturing therapeutic proteins, including monoclonal antibodies. Monoclonal antibodies treat conditions such as cancer, autoimmune diseases, and inflammatory conditions. Over 50 FDA-approved therapeutic proteins have been derived from CHO cells, showcasing their widespread utility.
Beyond antibodies, CHO cells produce other recombinant proteins, such as insulin for diabetes management and erythropoietin, which stimulates red blood cell production. The thrombolytic medication alteplase, for treating clot-inducing ailments, was the first commercially available recombinant protein from CHO cells, approved in 1987. CHO cells also serve as models and tools in gene therapy research, facilitating new treatments by providing a reliable platform for studying gene function and expression.