Immobilization of rat erythrocytes for aflatoxicol production

Summary A modified procedure for preparing alginate gel was developed and used to entrap rat erythrocytes. The immobilized erythrocytes showed high enzyme activity for the reduction of aflatoxin B₁ to aflatoxicol. The production of aflatoxicol from aflatoxin B₁ by immobilized erythrocytes was studied for over 3 weeks and the half-life of such a preparation was shown to be about 10 days. The immobilized erythrocytes can be repeatedly used at 37° C for the batch-wise mode of aflatoxicol production without substantial loss of enzyme activity. Haemolysis of immobilized erythrocytes was not observed upon prolonged storage at 4° C. As compared with free erythrocytes, the immobilized erythrocytes were more temperature resistant at 40° C incubation.Part of this work was presented on ROC-Japan Seminar on Applied Microbiology and Enzymology held in Taipei, Republic of China, on March 8, 1984