On-line heat flux measurements improve the culture medium for the growth and productivity of genetically engineered CHO cells

Developmental energetics: Energy expenditure, budgets and metabolism during animal embryogenesis

Developing embryos are metabolically active, open systems that constantly exchange matter and energy with their environment. They function out of thermodynamic equilibrium and continuously use metabolic pathways to obtain energy from maternal nutrients, in order to fulfill the energetic requirements of growth and development. While an increasing number of studies highlight the role of metabolism in different developmental contexts, the physicochemical basis of embryogenesis, or how cellular processes use energy and matter to act together and transform a zygote into an adult organism, remains unknown. As we obtain a better understanding of metabolism, and benefit from current technology development, it is a promising time to revisit the energetic cost of development and how energetic principles may govern embryogenesis. Here, we review recent advances in methodology to measure and infer energetic parameters in developing embryos. We highlight a potential common pattern in embryonic energy expenditure and metabolic strategy across animal embryogenesis, and discuss challenges and open questions in developmental energetics.

Optimization and control of perfusion cultures using a viable cell probe and cell specific perfusion rates

Consistent perfusion culture production requires reliable cell retention and control of feed rates. An on-line cell probe based on capacitance was used to assay viable biomass concentrations. A constant cell specific perfusion rate controlled medium feed rates with a bioreactor cell concentration of approximately 5 x 10(6) cells mL(-1). Perfusion feeding was automatically adjusted based on the cell concentration signal from the on-line biomass sensor. Cell specific perfusion rates were varied over a range of 0.05 to 0.4 nL cell(-1) day(-1). Pseudo-steady-state bioreactor indices (concentrations, cellular rates and yields) were correlated to cell specific perfusion rates investigated to maximize recombinant protein production from a Chinese hamster ovary cell line. The tissue-type plasminogen activator concentration was maximized ( approximately 40 mg L(-1)) at 0.2 nL cell(-1) day(-1). The volumetric protein productivity ( approximately 60 mg L(-1) day(-1) was maximized above 0.3 nL cell(-1) day(-1). The use of cell specific perfusion rates provided a straightforward basis for controlling, modeling and optimizing perfusion cultures.

Quantitative modeling of viable cell density, cell size, intracellular conductivity, and membrane capacitance in batch and fed-batch CHO processes using dielectric spectroscopy

Dielectric spectroscopy was used to analyze typical batch and fed-batch CHO cell culture processes. Three methods of analysis (linear modeling, Cole-Cole modeling, and partial least squares regression), were used to correlate the spectroscopic data with routine biomass measurements [viable packed cell volume, viable cell concentration (VCC), cell size, and oxygen uptake rate (OUR)]. All three models predicted offline biomass measurements accurately during the growth phase of the cultures. However, during the stationary and decline phases of the cultures, the models decreased in accuracy to varying degrees. Offline cell radius measurements were unsuccessfully used to correct for the deviations from the linear model, indicating that physiological changes affecting permittivity were occurring. The beta-dispersion was analyzed using the Cole-Cole distribution parameters Deltaepsilon (magnitude of the permittivity drop), f(c) (critical frequency), and alpha (Cole-Cole parameter). Furthermore, the dielectric parameters static internal conductivity (sigma(i)) and membrane capacitance per area (C(m)) were calculated for the cultures. Finally, the relationship between permittivity, OUR, and VCC was examined, demonstrating how the definition of viability is critical when analyzing biomass online. The results indicate that the common assumptions of constant size and dielectric properties used in dielectric analysis are not always valid during later phases of cell culture processes. The findings also demonstrate that dielectric spectroscopy, while not a substitute for VCC, is a complementary measurement of viable biomass, providing useful auxiliary information about the physiological state of a culture.

On-line determination of animal cell concentration in two industrial high-density culture processes by dielectric spectroscopy

Dielectric spectroscopy was applied to two industrial high cell density culture processes and used to determine on-line the concentration of CHO cells immobilized on macroporous microcarriers in a stirred bioreactor and in a packed-bed of disk carriers. The cell concentration predicted from the spectroscopic data was in excellent agreement with off-line cell counting data for both processes. Deviations between the two counting methods only occurred in the case of a significant decrease of the cell viability, from 93% to 64%, which induced a change of the average cell size in the culture. Results for the packed-bed process were further confirmed by the application of indirect yield models based on the measurement of glucose, lactate, and the protein of interest. Moreover, dielectric spectroscopy was used as a tool to characterize the packed-bed process. It was possible to determine both the maximum cell concentration that could be reached in the culture system, 2.0 x 10(11) cell per kg of disk carrier, and to quantify the increase of specific protein productivity induced by the production phase, from 5.14 x 10(-8) microg x cell(-1) x h(-1) to 4.24 x 10(-7) microg x cell(-1) x h(-1).

Detection of the changing substrate requirements of cultured animal cells by stoichiometric growth equations validated by enthalpy balances

As part of an overall aim to base the feeding of substrates to cultured animal cells on their actual metabolic needs, we have developed a stoichiometric approach centred on the macronutrients in the medium. Heat flux records the overall metabolic activity and therefore was the sensitive indicator of changing metabolic requirement. Analyses were made of the experimental measurements on two engineered cell lines in batch culture, the 2C11-12 macrophage hybridoma cell capable of the respiratory burst and the CHO320 constitutively producing human interferon-gamma. The crux was to construct simplified stoichiometric equations for the growth reactions to represent metabolic activity as it changed with time. Beforehand, it was essential to select the appropriate components for the equations. The choice was then justified by constructing enthalpy balances in which the ratio of heat flux to enthalpy flux must be close to unity for validation. By combining the stoichiometric approach with heat flow measurements, it was shown both theoretically and experimentally that the set of stoichiometric coefficients constituting a validated growth equation has a one-to-one corresponding relationship to the metabolic activity of the average cell population. Thus, a strategy was established for feeding the cells at any one time with the correct ratio of the major substrates, glucose and glutamine, in response to metabolic requirements that change with time.