Problems involved in the large scale production of biological products, such as beta-interferon, using diploid fibroblast cells as substrate.

The large-scale and continuous cycle production of Hu beta-IFN serves to indicate that with expansion of cell cultures, aspects such as the reliability of the growth media and the possibility of contamination of cultures may become critical and limiting factors for the production itself. Methods of growth media preparation are described, with particular stress on the problems related to bacterial contamination and water quality. Our production method involves the expansion of cellular cultures using roller bottles, and a final step using the microcarrier technique. The necessity of collecting the cultures in only two fermentors increases the possibilities of contamination. Methods employed in order to minimize these problems are discussed.