Newly developed microcarrier culturing systems--an overview.

Microcarrier (MC) culturing systems are widely employed for the production of biological products required for human and veterinary uses and serve as a tool for basic research in cell biology. Three types of MCs were developed by our group: cellulose, polyacrylamide and polystyrene based MCs. These newly developed MCs were used for the propagation of primary cells, cells from a human diploid cell strain and cells from established cell lines, for the production of biological products (various viruses, mouse interferon and carcinoembryonic antigen) as well as for studying cell differentiation. Basic questions regarding the effect of the chemical nature of MCs on cell attachment, spreading and growth were investigated throughout the development of these MCs.