Haemodialysis

OXYGEN UPTAKE IN
CELL CULTURES
Cells in aerobic culture take up oxygen from the liquid phase. The rate
of oxygen transfer from gas to liquid is therefore of prime importance,
especially in dense cell cultures where the demand for dissolved oxygen
is high.
An expression for the rate of oxygen transfer from gas to liquid is given
by
NA is the rate of oxygen transfer per unit volume of fluid (gmol m-3 s-1),
 kL is the liquid-phase mass transfer coefficient , a is the gas-liquid interfacial area
per unit volume of fluid .
CAL is the oxygen concentration in the broth.
and C*AL is the oxygen concentration in the broth in equilibrium with the gas
phase (gmol m-3). The equilibrium concentration C*AL is also known as the
saturation concentration or solubility of oxygen in the broth.
 C*AL represents the maximum possible oxygen concentration that can occur in
the liquid under the prevailing gas-phase composition, temperature, and pressure.
The difference (C*AL –CAL) between the maximum possible and actual oxygen
concentrations in the liquid represents the concentration-difference driving force
for mass transfer.
The solubility of oxygen in aqueous solutions at ambient temperature
and pressure is less than 10 ppm.
This amount of oxygen is quickly consumed in aerobic cultures an must
be replaced constantly by sparging.
An actively respiring cell population can consume the entire oxygen
content of a culture broth within a few seconds;
therefore, the maximum amount of oxygen that can be dissolved in the
medium must be transferred from the gas phase 10 to 15 times per
minute.
This is not an easy task because the low solubility of oxygen guarantees
that the concentration difference (C*AL –CAL)
Design of fermenters for aerobic culture must take these factors into
account and provide optimum mass transfer conditions.
Factors Affecting Cellular Oxygen Demand
• Many factors influence oxygen demand: the most important of these
are cell species, culture growth phase, and the nature of the carbon
source provided in the medium.
• In batch culture, the rate of oxygen uptake varies with time. The
reasons for this are twofold. First, the concentration of cells increases
during the course of batch culture and the total rate of oxygen uptake
is proportional to the number of cells present.
• In addition, the rate of oxygen consumption per cell, known as the
specific oxygen uptake rate, also varies, often reaching a maximum
during the early stages of cell growth. If Q0 is the oxygen uptake rate
per volume of broth and q0 is the specific oxygen uptake rate:
Q0 =q0 x
• where x is cell concentration.
The inherent demand of an organism for oxygen (q0) depends primarily
on the biochemical nature of the cell and its nutritional environment.
However, when the level of dissolved oxygen in the medium falls below
a certain point, the specific rate of oxygen uptake is also dependent on
the oxygen concentration in the liquid, CAL.
The dependence of q0 on CAL is shown in Figure. If CAL is above the
critical oxygen concentration Ccrit, q0 is a constant maximum and
independent of CAL. If CAL is below Ccrit, q0 is approximately linearly
dependent on oxygen concentration.
FIGURE - Relationship between the
specific rate of oxygen consumption by cells
and dissolved oxygen concentration.