Image analysis supported moss cell disruption in photo-bioreactors

Diverse methods for the disruption of cell entanglements and pellets of the moss Physcomitrella patens were tested in order to improve the homogeneity of suspension cultures. The morphological characterization of the moss was carried out by means of image analysis. Selected morphological parameters were defined and compared to the reduction of the carbon dioxide fixation, and the released pigments after cell disruption. The size control of the moss entanglements based on the rotor stator principle allowed a focused shear stress, avoiding a severe reduction in the photosynthesis. Batch cultures of P. patens in a 30.0-l pilot tubular photo-bioreactor with cell disruption showed no significant variation in growth rate and a delayed cell differentiation, when compared to undisrupted cultures. A highly controlled photoautotrophic culture of P. patens in a scalable photo-bioreactor was established, contributing to the development required for the future use of mosses as producers of relevant heterologous proteins.     

Rapid on-line protein detection in biotechnological processes by flow injection analysis (FIA)

Two rapid methods for on-line protein determination useful for control purposes in the automation of biotechnological processes such as fermentation and downstream processing are described. Both methods are derived from colorimetric laboratory biuret and Bradford protein assays adapted to a flow injection analyser.     

Determination of ammonium and L-Glutamine in hybridoma cell cultures by sequential flow injection analysis

A flow injection anlytical system based on a gas diffusion membrane module for ammonia and an ammonium flow-through potentiometric detector has been set up for measurement of L-glutamine and ammonium ions in hybridoma cell cultures. The main feature of the system is that the same basic analytical concept and equipment is used in both measurements, the only difference being for the determination of L-glutamine, in which the sample flows through an immobilized glutaminase cartridge. The conditions to enable the performance of both analysis consecutively, avoiding potential interferences by unwanted deamination of other compounds in the samples, have been determined. Finally, the proposed system has been compared with reference analytical methods for batch hybridoma cell culture experiments.     

Estimation of disruption of animal cells by turbulent capillary flow

Disruption of animal cells in turbulent capillary flows has been predicted from a model of cell-hydrodynamic interactions using cell mechanical properties determined by micromanipulation. Eddies of sizes similar to or smaller than the cells are presumed to interact with those cells, causing local surface deformations. The proposed mechanism of cell damage is that such deformations result in an increase in membrane tension and surface energy and that a cell disrupts when its bursting membrane tension and bursting surface energy are exceeded. The surface energy of the cells is estimated from the kinetic energy of appropriately sized eddies. To test the model, cells were disrupted in turbulent flows in capillaries at mean energy dissipation rates up to 2 x 10(4) m(2)/s(3). In all cases the model underestimated the cell disruption by about 15%. Such good agreement implies that the approach of the model to the complicated phenomena of cell turbulence interactions is reasonable. (c) 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Selective determination of lithium in biological fluids using flow injection analysis

The use of flow injection analysis to automated extraction methods for the determination of lithium ion utilizing crown ethers or cryptands is demonstrated. The ion-pair extraction of cryptand 211, lithium, and resazurin exhibits a linear range for lithium ion of 70 ppb to 2.1 ppm. This method could tolerate up to 1000 ppm sodium ion. The chromogenic crown ether, 1-(2-hydroxy-5-nitrobenzyl)-1-aza-4,7,10-trioxacyclododecane, exhibits a linear range for lithium ion of 0.3 to 2 ppm. A sodium ion concentration of 230 ppm can be tolerated. Both extraction systems were used in the automated determination of lithium in blood serum and urine. Both methods agreed well with the known and/or atomic absorption values.     

Direct process integration of cell disruption and fluidised bed adsorption in the recovery of labile microbial enzymes

The practical feasibility and generic applicability of the direct integration of cell disruption by bead milling with the capture of intracellular products by fluidised bed adsorption has been demonstrated. Pilot-scale purification of the enzyme L-asparaginase from unclarified Erwinia chrysanthemi disruptates exploiting this novel approach yielded an interim product which rivalled or bettered that produced by the current commercial process employing discrete operations of alkaline lysis, centrifugal clarification and batch adsorption. In addition to improved yield and quality of product, the process time during primary stages of purification was greatly diminished. Two cation exchange adsorbents, CM HyperD LS (Biosepra/Life Technologies) and SP UpFront (custom made SP form of a prototype stainless steel/agarose matrix, UpFront Chromatography) were physically and biochemically evaluated for such direct product sequestration. Differences in performance with regard to product capacity and adsorption/desorption kinetics were demonstrated and are discussed with respect to the design of adsorbents for specific applications. In any purification of L-asparaginase (pI = 8.6), product-debris interactions commonly diminish the recovery of available product. It was demonstrated herein, that immediate disruptate exposure to a fluidised bed adsorbent promoted concomitant reduction of product in the liquid phase, which clearly counter-acted the product-debris interactions to the benefit of product yield.     

Chemiluminescence inhibition assay for folic acid using flow injection analysis

A new flow injection method for the determination of folic acid is described. A fast oxidation reaction occurred when folic acid was mixed with potassium ferricyanide generating ferrocyanide which then inhibited the chemiluminescent reaction of ferricyanide and luminol in alkaline medium. The decrease of chemiluminescence intensity was correlated with the folic acid concentration in the range 0.1-21 microg/mL; the detection limit for the assay was 0.03 microg/mL (3sigma). A complete analysis of folic acid, including sampling and washing, could be performed within 2 min with a relative standard deviation of less than 4.0%. The proposed method has been applied successfully to the determination of folic acid in pharmaceutical preparations.     

Quantitation of glycerophosphorylcholine by flow injection analysis using immobilized enzymes

A method for quantitating glycerophosphorylcholine by flow injection analysis is reported in the present paper. Glycerophosphorylcholine phosphodiesterase and choline oxidase, immobilized on controlled porosity glass beads, are packed in a small reactor inserted in a flow injection manifold. When samples containing glycerophosphorylcholine are injected, glycerophosphorylcholine is hydrolyzed into choline and sn-glycerol-3-phosphate. The free choline produced in this reaction is oxidized to betain and hydrogen peroxide. Hydrogen peroxide is detected amperometrically.Quantitation of glycerophosphorylcholine in samples containing choline and phosphorylcholine is obtained inserting ahead of the reactor a small column packed with a mixed bed ion exchange resin. The time needed for each determination does not exceed one minute.The present method, applied to quantitate glycerophosphorylcholine in samples of seminal plasma, gave results comparable with those obtained using the standard enzymatic- spectrophotometric procedure.An alternative procedure, making use of co-immobilized glycerophosphorylcholine phosphodiesterase and glycerol-3-phosphate oxidase for quantitating glycerophosphorylcholine, glycerophosphorylethanolamine and glycerophosphorylserine is also described.Abbreviations GPC sn-glycerol-3-phosphorylcholine - GPE sn-glycerol-3-phosphorylethanolamine - GPS sn-glycerol-3-phosphorylserine - GPA sn-glycerol-3-phosphoric acid - PDE glycerophosphorylcholine-phosphodiesterase - GPA-Ox glycerophosphate oxidase - Cho-Ox choline oxidase     

Flow cytometric analysis of human lysozyme production in recombinantSaccharomyces cerevisiae

Flow cytometric techniques were used to investigate cell size, protein content and cell cycle behavior of recombinantSaccharomyces cerevisiae strains producing human lysozyme (HLZ). Two different signal sequences, the native yeastMFα1 signal sequence and the rat α-amylase signal sequence, were used for secretion of HLZ. The strain containing the rat α-amylase signal sequence showed a higher level of internal lysozyme and lower specific growth rates. Flow cytometric analysis of the total protein content and cell size showed the strain harboring the native yeast signal sequence had a higher total protein content than the strain containing the rat α-amylase signal sequence. Cell cycle analysis indicated that the two lysozyme producing recombinant strains had an increased number of cells in the G₂+M phase of the yeast cell cycle compared with the host strain SEY2102.     

Variations in plasmid content during Escherichia coli cultivations detected by on-line flow injection processing

An integrated flow injection process for analysis of intracellular components of microbes has been used to monitor plasmid content in Escherichia coli cultivations inoculated with cells subcultured in the presence or absence of ampicillin. The system allows sampling, sample handling, cell disruption, separation of intracellular components, and analysis in a semi-on-line mode of operation. The time scale for the assay is in the range 15 min (plasmid peak) to 25 min (complete assay cycle). As expected, lower initial plasmid content was found using an inoculum subcultured in the absence of ampicillin. More importantly, significant decrease in plasmid content was detected in the later stages of the cultivations (grown in ampicillin containing medium) even when using inoculum subcultured in the presence of ampicillin. This illustrates the versatility of the system, which allows monitoring of plasmid content as the cultivation proceeds.     

On-line monitoring and control of substrate concentrations in biological processes by flow injection analysis systems

Concentrations of substrates, glucose, and ammionia in biological processes have been on-line monitored by using glucose-flow injection (FIA) and ammonia-FIA systems. Based on the on-line monitored data the concentrations of substrates have been controlled by an on-off controller, a PID controller, and a neural network (NN) based controller. A simulation program has been developed to test the control quality of each controller and to estimate the control parameters. The on-off controller often produced high oscillations at the set point due to its low robustness. The control quality of a PID controller could have been improved by a high analysis frequency and by a short residence time of sample in a FIA system. A NN-based controller with 3 layers has been developed, and a 3(input)-2(hidden)-1(output) network structure has been found to be optimal for the NN-based controller. The performance of the three controllers has been tested in a simulated process as well as in a cultivation process ofSaccharomyces cerevisiae, and the performance has also been compared to simulation results. The NN-based controller with the 3-2-1 network structure was robust and stable against some disturbances, such as a sudden injection of distilled water into a biological process.     

An automated flow injection analysis system for on-line monitoring of glucose and L-lactate during lactic acid fermentation in a recycle bioreactor

The study concerns on-line sequential analysis of glucose and L-lactate during lactic acid fermentation using a flow injection analysis (FIA) system. Enzyme electrodes containing immobilized glucose oxidase and L-lactate oxidase were used with an amperometric detection system. A 12-bit data acquisition card with 16 analog input channels and 8 digital output channels was used. The software for data acquisition was developed using Visual C++, and was devised for sampling every hour for sequential analyses of lactate and glucose. The detection range was found to be 2–100 g l^–1 for glucose and 1–60 g l^–1 for L-lactate using the biosensors. This FIA system was used for monitoring glucose utilization and L-lactate production by immobilized cells of Lactobacillus casei subsp. rhamnosus during a lactic acid fermentation process in a recycle batch reactor. After 13 h of fermentation, complete sugar utilization and maximal L-lactate production was observed. A good agreement was observed between analysis data obtained using the biosensors and data from standard analyses of reducing sugar and L-lactate. The biosensors exhibited excellent stability during continuous operation for at least 45 days.     

Methanol determination in Pichia pastoris cultures by flow injection analysis

An automated reverse flow injection analysis (r-FIA) system using stop-flow technique for quantifying methanol based on the enzymatic reactions of alcohol oxidase and peroxidase was developed. The system permitted methanol analysis in a linear range of 0.006-0.1 g methanol l^–1 without external dilution, and with a sampling frequency of 12 analyses per hour, with a relative standard deviation of 1.16%. The analyser was validated analysing samples from a Pichia pastoris fermentation producing a heterologous protein.     

Chemiluminescent assays for choline and phospholipase-D using a flow injection system

A flow injection chemiluminescent method is described for the determination of choline. The method is based on the production of hydrogen peroxide from choline using on-line covalently bound immobilized choline oxidase column. The product is mixed downstream and detected via the cobalt catalyzed chemiluminescent oxidation of luminol. The detection limit is 1×10⁻⁷ mol/L, with rsd 1.8 to 2.8% in the range 2–10×10⁻⁵ mol/L. The sample throughput is 30 per hour. The method was applied to the determination of choline produced off-line from phosphatidylcholine using phospholipase-D isolated from cabbage. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Fluorimetric quantification of intracellular lactate dehydrogenase during fermentation using flow injection analysis

A flow injection system for the on-line detection of the intracellular enzyme lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) during fermentation has been developed. The system is comprised of an on-line cell disintegration part, an immobilised dye based expanded bed column for the affinity capture of LDH and a fluorimetric detection unit. The system with a linearity of 0.1–5.4 U LDH ml^–1 was applied for the detection of intracellular accumulation of LDH during Lactococcus lactis subsp.lactis cultivation.     

Development of a flow‐injection analysis system with fluorescence detection for gatifloxacin determination in organized medium

This work reports the development and optimization of a flow injection analysis system with fluorescence detection (FIA–FLUO) for gatifloxacin (GFX) determination in organized medium. The analytical system was based on the enhanced fluorescence of gatifloxacin in micellar medium containing sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) at pH 6.0. The influence of physical (carrier flow rate, sample volume and volume of reaction coil) and chemical (pH, concentration of buffer and concentration of SDS) parameters that could affect the performance of the FIA system was evaluated in order to reach optimum conditions in terms of sensitivity and analytical throughput. Under optimized conditions, the FIA–FLUO system allowed the injection of 40 samples per hour with a limit of quantification of 72 µg/L and a RSD of 3.5% at 0.20 mg/L. Real samples of commercial pharmaceutical formulations containing GFX were analyzed, and no statistical difference was observed between the results obtained using the developed system and those obtained using the reference method based on high‐performance liquid chromatography with UV detection. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Microbial cell disruption methods for efficient release of enzyme L-asparaginase

Abstract

The efficacy of a simple laboratory method for cell disruption based on the glass bead stirring, sonication, osmotic shock, freezing and grinding, or use of solvents and detergents was assessed in this study, via measurements of the release of total protein and L-asparaginase activity. Three different microbial sources of L-asparaginase were used: Escherichia coli BL21 (DE3), Leucosporidium muscorum, and Aspergillus terreus (CCT 7693). This study adjusted and identified the best procedure for each kind of microorganism. Sonication and glass bead stirring led to obtaining filamentous fungus cell-free extracts containing high concentrations of soluble proteins and specific activity; however, sonication was the best since it obtained 4.61?±?0.12?IU?mg^?1 after 3?min of operation time. Mechanical methods were also the most effective for yeast cell disruption, but sonication was the technique which yielded a higher efficiency releasing 7.3 IUtotal compared to glass bead stirring releasing 2.7 IUtotal at the same operation time. For bacterium, sonication proved to be the best procedure due to getting the highest specific activity (9.01?IU?mg^?1) and total enzyme activity (61.7?IU). The data presented lead to conclude that the mechanical methods appeared to be the most effective for the disintegration of the all microbial cells studies. This is the first report related to the experimental comparison of L-ASNase extraction procedures from different microorganisms, which can also be used for extracting periplasm located enzymes from other organisms.     

固定化谷氨酸氧化酶管流动注射测定谷氨酸的研究

多孔玻璃珠固定谷氪酸氧化酶与过氧化氢酶分别制成相应的固定化酶管,结合流动注射分析系统测定谷氨酸的含量。测定线性范围在0．1—2．O mmol／L．精度(c．V)O．7％．测定速率每小时80样以上．使用寿命至少4个月。在各氨酸浓度低于2．5mmol／L时．pH在6．5—8．0．温度20—35℃．磷酸盐浓度在0.05—0.25mol／L范围内对测定几乎无影响．对不同发酵时间的谷氨酸发酵液测定,测定的结果与酶试剂盒及瓦氏法比较,结果一致．说明该方法已具有实际应用价值。     

On-line monitoring of glucose and/or lactate in a fermentation process using an expanded micro-bed flow injection analyser

A novel flow injection biosensor system for monitoring fermentation processes has been developed using an expanded micro bed as the enzyme reactor. An expanded bed reactor is capable of handling a mobile phase containing suspended matter like cells and cell debris. Thus, while the analyte is free to interact with the adsorbent, the suspended particulate matter passes through unhindered. With the use of a scaled down expanded bed in the flow injection analysis (FIA) system, it was possible to analyse samples directly from a fermentor without the pretreatment otherwise required to extract the analyte or remove the suspended cells. This technique, therefore, provides a means to determine the true concentrations of the metabolites in a fermentor, with more ease than possible with other techniques.Glucose oxidase immobilised on STREAMLINE was used to measure glucose concentration in a suspension of dead yeast cells. There was no interference from the cell particles even at high cell densities such as 15 gm dry weight per litre. The assay time was about 6 min. Accuracy and reproducibility of the system was found to be good. In another scheme, lactate oxidase was covalently coupled to STREAMLINE for expanded bed operation. With the on-line expanded micro bed FIA it was possible to follow the fermentation with Lactobacillus casei.     

Determination of thyroxine in pharmaceuticals using flow injection with luminol chemiluminescence inhibition detection.

A simple flow injection method is reported for the determination of thyroxine, based on its inhibition effect on luminol-iron(II) chemiluminescence in alkaline medium in the presence of molecular oxygen. The detection limits (2s) for d- and l-thyroxine are 0.08 and 0.1 mg/L, respectively, with a sample throughput of 100/h. The calibration data for d- and l-thyroxine over the range 0.2-1.0 mg/L gives correlation coefficients (r(2)) of 0.9915 and 0.984 with relative standard deviations (RSD; n = 4) in the range 1.2-2.8%. The effects of some organic compounds was studied on luminol-iron(II) CL system for thyroxine determination. The method was applied to pharmaceutical thyroxine tablets and the results obtained (in the range 50.5 +/- 2.0-51.6 +/- 1.2 microg l-thyroxine/tablet) were in reasonable agreement with the value quoted.