Novel anchorage matrices for suspension culture of mammalian cells

Nonwoven fabrics were used as a support matrix for culturing anchorage-dependent diploid human lung fibroblast (IMR-90) cells. The most significant advantage of the fabrics is that low-inocula concentrations suffice to attain high final cell density. Cultures were successfully grown from inocula containing as little as 5% of the final number of cells, which is significantly lower than the 30–40% inocula concentrations typically required for tissue cell culture on dextran bead microcarriers, or on petri dishes or culture flasks. Nonwoven fabric cell supports also were superior to conventional spherical microcarriers for production of metabolic biopolymers (t-plasminogen activator) in serum-free media.