Shear sensitivity of animal cells from a culture-medium perspective.

Recently, several groups have published data on the shear sensitivity of suspended animal cells and the protective effect of certain polymers. These findings did not, at the time, seem to have great practical application because shear sensitivity did not cause great problems for large-scale applications in sparged and stirred-tank reactors using the then-current culture media and fermentation procedures. However, two recent developments might require renewed attention in sparged animal-cell cultures--protein-free media and new fermentation techniques.