Vaccines have been used for centuries to protect people and animals against
infectious diseases. For
vaccine production, it has become evident that cell culture technology can be considered as a key milestone and has been the result of decades of progress. The development and implementation of cell substrates have permitted massive and safe production of
viral vaccines. The demand in new
vaccines against emerging
viral diseases, the increasing
vaccine production volumes, and the stringent safety rules for manufacturing have made cell substrates mandatory
viral vaccine producer factories. In this review, we focus on cell substrates for the production of
vaccines against human
viral diseases. Depending on the nature of the
vaccine, choice of the cell substrate is critical. Each manufacturer intending to develop a new
vaccine candidate should assess several cell substrates during the early development phase in order to select the most convenient for the application. First, as
vaccine safety is quite naturally a central concern of Regulatory Agencies, the cell substrate has to answer the regulatory rules stringency. In addition, the cell substrate has to be competitive in terms of viral-specific production yields and manufacturing costs. No cell substrate, even the so-called "designer" cell lines, is able to fulfil all the requested criteria for all
viral vaccines. Therefore, the availability of a variety of cell substrates for
vaccine production is essential because it improves the chance to successfully respond to the current and future needs of
vaccines linked to new emerging or
re-emerging infectious diseases (e.g. pandemic flu, Ebola, and Chikungunya outbreaks).