Abstract: A microcarrier based process to produce viral vaccines, of which one example is hepatitis A virus (HAV), is composed of an aggregated microcarrier system of glass coated polystyrene microcarriers and MRC-5 cells which creates a stable environment for the propagation of the virus over even extended infection periods. The microcarrier aggregates formed according to this process eliminate the sloughing of cells from the beads during long cultivations seen in other systems, allowing high virus productivity in microcarrier culture. The methodology is applicable where virus production can be enhanced by creating a stable culture during an extended infection period. Scalable stirred bioreactors are used instead of multiple parallel stationary surface bioreactors.

Abstract: A novel method of disrupting cells which do not have a cell wall comprises passing suspended cells through a low pressure impinging jet device. This method disrupts the cells, but does not harm the cell products which are liberated.