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Abstract

Mammalian cell culture processes, are commonly used for production of recombinant glycoproteins, antibodies and viral vaccines. Since several years there is an increasing interest in cell culture-based influenza vaccine production to overcome limitations of egg-based production systems, to improve vaccine supply and to increase flexibility in vaccine manufacturing. With the switch of the production system several key questions concerning the possible impact of host cell lines on antigen quality, passage-dependent selection of certain viral phenotypes or changes in hemagglutinin (HA) conformation have to be addressed to guarantee safety and efficiency of vaccines. Within this study, a capillary DNA-sequencer (based on CGE-LIF technology: capillary-gelelectrophoresis coupled online to laser-induced fluorescence detection) was utilized [1] for Nglycan analysis of different influenza virus strains, replicated in different mammalian cell lines. Detailed results concerning the influence of the host cell line on complexity and composition of the HA N-glycosylation pattern, are presented. Besides a strong host cell dependence of HA N-glycosylation that could be shown, a significant change in N-glycan type attached to HA was observed, comparing different virus types and subtypes [2]. [1] Schwarzer, J.; Rapp, E.; Reichl, U. Electrophoresis, 2008, 29, 4203-4214. [2] Schwarzer, J.; Rapp, E.; Hennig, R.; Genzel, Y.; Reichl U. Vaccine, 2008, submitted.