Effects of perfluorinated oxygen carrier application in yeast, fungi and plant cell suspension cultures

The growth of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the fungus Rhizopus nigricans and Nicotiana tabacum cells with perfluorodecalin as an oxygen carrier has been studied. The volumetric mass transfer coefficient (k_La) measured by the dynamic method was higher for the perfluorodecalin oxygenation system than for the conventional aeration system. The results show that perfluorocarbon can be successfully used as an efficient gas carrier, especially for the culture of delicate plant cells. The increase in yeast biomass in the suspension culture aerated by perfluorodecalin was as much as 110% higher than in the culture aerated by air. The fungus R. nigricans grew better when the conventional aeration system was used due to the fact that growth of the mycelium is limited by the transport of oxygen by diffusion in the pellets rather than by interfacial oxygen transport. In the case of isolated tobacco cells, an increase of over 350% in biomass growth was observed for the PFC aeration system.