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Review
. 2021 Dec 13:9:796991.
doi: 10.3389/fbioe.2021.796991. eCollection 2021.

HEK293 Cell Line as a Platform to Produce Recombinant Proteins and Viral Vectors

Evan Tan  1 , Cara Sze Hui Chin  1 , Zhi Feng Sherman Lim  1 , Say Kong Ng  1
Affiliations
Review

HEK293 Cell Line as a Platform to Produce Recombinant Proteins and Viral Vectors

Evan Tan et al. Front Bioeng Biotechnol. .

Abstract

Animal cell-based expression platforms enable the production of complex biomolecules such as recombinant proteins and viral vectors. Although most biotherapeutics are produced in animal cell lines, production in human cell lines is expanding. One important advantage of using human cell lines is the increased potential that the resulting biotherapeutics would carry more "human-like" post-translational modifications. Among the human cell lines, HEK293 is widely utilized due to its high transfectivity, rapid growth rate, and ability to grow in a serum-free, suspension culture. In this review, we discuss the use of HEK293 cells and its subtypes in the production of biotherapeutics. We also compare their usage against other commonly used host cell lines in each category of biotherapeutics and summarise the factors influencing the choice of host cell lines used.

Keywords: HEK293; biotechnology; biotherapeutics and biologics; human embryonic kidney cell 293; viral vectored vaccines; viral vectors.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

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