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Mammalian Protein Expression: CAP-T cells

#CAP-T cells are emerging as an alternative to #CHO and #HEK cells for protein expression considering some inherent genetic aberrations in the latter ones, hindering expression of certain classes of proteins. Dive in for an introduction to these amazing cells!


#CAP-T cells are a modification of #CEVEC's Aminocyte Production (CAP) cell line by transfecting them with E1 and pIX functions of #Adenovirus 5. They also constitutively expresses #SV40 large T antigen causing transgene expression by #episomal replication and maintenance of expression #plasmids carrying SV40 origin of replication. This is advantageous as it allows working both at early development stages (using TGE on CAP-T cells) and production levels (using SGE on CAP cells) without the need of changing the cell line.


Why CAP-T cells?

  • In different #CHO sublines, genotypic observations lead to disability of protein expression by loss of #chaperones or other processing enzymes.

  • Also the genetic repertoire of #HEK293 cells/ kidney cells could be inherently incapable of supporting expression and processing of certain #genes of different #tissue origin.

Transient Expression protocol:

Day -1: Grow #CAP-T cells on Protein Expression Media + 4mM #GlutaMaxI (PEM+G) media at 37C, 5% CO2 and 120 RPM (orbital shaking diameter 25mm).


Day 0: 1. Take Cell count, calculate the volume for 20 million cells, centrifuge the culture at 200g for 5 mins and re-suspend the cells in 4mL of #Freestyle293 media supplemented with 0.1% #Pluronic F68.

2. Dilute plasmid #DNA as 0.5pg/cell in Freestyle293 / #OptiMEM I and vortex for 10s.

3. Dilute #PEI Max reagent as 3pg/ cell similarly, vortex 10s.

4. Add #pDNA solution directly to the CAP-T cells, incubate 5 mins at RT.

5. Add diluted #PEI Max solution to the culture, incubate at 37C for 4h.

6. Add 24mL PEM+G and 4mM #valproic acid (to enhance protein expression by inhibition of histone deacetylase) to the culture after 4h incubation.


Day 3: Take regular cell count and viability check. Add feed to the culture as per the following table:

By Day 10 culture viability is expected to drop below 80% and that is the time you harvest your culture.

Harvest Day: 1. Spin the culture at 4000-6000 RPM for 30 mins at 4C.

2. For secretory protein, harvest the supernatant and add 0.02-0.03% sodium azide and Protease inhibitor, filter sterilize and proceed to purification.

3. For intracellular protein, wash the pellet with #PBS and proceed to purification.


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Shreya C
Shreya C
21. Feb.

Interesting article! Thanks for sharing!

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