Method for culturing mammalian cells in a horizontally rotated bioreactor

A method for growing mammalian cell cultures including the steps of:

• providing a bioreactor comprising:
• an elongated tubular culture vessel;
• end caps enclosing the ends of said culture vessel;
• a shaft co-axially disposed in said culture vessel and extending between said end caps;
• and a tubular membrane disposed over said shaft between said end caps and sealed with respect to said shaft for defining an annular passageway between said membrane and said shaft and for defining an annular culture chamber between said membrane and the inner wall of said culture vessel, said membrane being oxygen permeable for exchange of component gases with said culture chamber;
• completely filling said culture chamber with a fluid nutrient medium containing discrete suspension material and mammalian cells, said suspension material having a different density from the density of the fluid nutrient medium;
• rotating said culture vessel, said shaft and said membrane about the longitudinal axis of said culture vessel, said longitudinal axis being horizontally disposed;
• controlling the rotation of said culture vessel so as to place the discrete suspension materials and cells in suspension at spatial locations in the fluid nutrient medium out of interference relationship with one another by virtue of the rotation;
• and
• during said rotation, continuously introducing an oxygen containing gas under pressure at one end of said annular passage and exiting the gas at the other end of said annular passageway.