Selection and culture of high-yield sinenxans cell lines of Taxus spp. distributed in China

OBJECTIVE: To select and culture high-yield sinenxans cell lines of Taxus spp. distributed in China to provide enough precursors for semi-synthesis of taxol-like anticancer drugs. METHODS: Cell cultures of Taxus were plate cultured and bisected subcultured. HPLC was used to determine the contents of sinenxans in callus cultures for selecting a high-yield sinenxans cell line, and the selected high-yield sinenxans cell line was cultured on a large scale. RESULTS: The contents of sinenxans were very different among not only the species, but also the clones of one species, and there was a relationship between the content and the color of the callus cultures: The growth of sinenxans high-yield cell lines was affected by medium composition and culture modes; a high-yield cell line, Ts-19, obtained from T. chinensis produced up to 4.0% of sinenxans on dry weight basis; Ts-19 callus grew slowly during the culture, and the content of sinenxans in it decreased during the early culture but reached the highest level at the end of culture. CONCLUSION: The content of sinenxans of Ts-19 was relatively stable on the present culture condition.