Enhanced antibody production by sodium butyrate addition to protein-free suspension culture of apoptosis-resistant CHO cells

Abstract

Sodium Butyrate(NaBu), a sodium salt of butyric acid, enhances the production of foreign proteins but concurrently induces apoptosis in recombinant Chinese hamster ovary(CHO) cells. But the recombinant CHO cell line developed from a novel dihydrofolate reductase deficient(dhfr-) CHO host cell line with an anti-apoptotic property by overexpression of the bcl-2 gene, had the successful target protein production in protein-free suspension culture with NaBu treatment, and overcame NaBu-induced apoptosis. In molecular mechanisms of NaBu-induced apoptosis, cellular Bcl-2, Bak and Bax protein expression levels were not altered. Thus NaBu may cause transcriptional or post-translational modification of upstream molecules over Bcl-2 directly or indirectly in apoptotic pathway.