Production of purified hepatitis B surface antigen from Alexander hepatoma cells grown in artificial capillary units.

An artificial capillary system was devised for growth of hepatoma cells that yields very high titers of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg). High yield of antigen was facilitated by slowing cellular metabolism through reduction of incubation temperature and addition of 0.1 mM caffeine. Deletion of serum from the medium did not reduce the yield of antigen. HBsAg prepared from the culture fluid by affinity chromatography and additional chemical and enzymatic steps was essentially pure and was indistinguishable from HBsAg prepared from infected human plasma. Preparation of HBsAg from the cell culture source presents advantages over that of human plasma and might be a source of HBsAg for vaccine preparation.