Kinetic analysis of cellular nucleotides correlated to growth and tPA production in perfusion cultures of human fibroblast cells.

A maximum cell density of 8 x 10(6) viable human fibroblast cells/ml was obtained on microcarriers at a perfusion rate of 0.6 mL/min-a rate which maintained a quasi-steady state. The maximum tPA production was approximately 1.2 micrograms/ml and obtained when the cell density was relatively constant during the later periods of cultivation. Specific UTP and tPA production rates had a correlation factor of 0.85, and cell growth to oxygen consumption had an 0.92 correlation factor. ATP generation was strongly correlated to glutamine consumption, with a lower correlation to oxygen utilization.