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

With the increasingly competitive commercial production of target proteins by hybridoma and genetically engineered cells, there is an urgent requirement for biosensors to monitor and control on-line and in real time the growth of cultured cells. Since growth is accompanied by an enthalpy change, heat dissipation measured by calorimetry could act as an index for metabolic flow rate. Recombinant CHO cell suspensions producing interferon-gamma were pumped to an on-line flow calorimeter. The results showed that an early reflection of metabolic change is size-specific heat flux obtained from dividing heat flow rate by the capacitance change of the cell suspension, using the on-line probe of a dielectric spectroscope. Comparison of heat flux with glucose and glutamine fluxes indicated that the former most accurately reflected decreased metabolic activity. Possibly this was due to accumulation of lactate and ammonia resulting from catabolic substrates being used as biosynthetic precursors. Thus, the heat flux probe is an ideal on-line biosensor for fed-batch culture. A stoichiometric growth reaction was formulated and data for material and heat fluxes incorporated into it. This showed that cell demand for glucose and glutamine was in the stoichiometric ratio of approximately 3:1 rather than the approximately 5:1 in the medium. It was demonstrated that the set of stoichiometric coefficients in the reaction were related through the extent of reaction (advancement) to overall metabolic activity (flux). The fact that this approach can be used for medium optimisation is the basis for an amino-acid-enriched medium which improved cell growth while decreasing catabolic fluxes.