Bioreactors for surface-immobilized cells

✍ Scribed by P. T. Tyler; W. G. W. Kurz; N. L. Paiva; S. Chavadej

• Book ID: 104617342
• Publisher: Springer
• Year: 1995
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 819 KB
• Volume: 42
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0167-6857
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00037685

✦ Synopsis

Surface immobilization of plant cells avoids the problem of hydrodynamic or shear stress, which tends to be characteristic of suspended cells cultured in typical, mechanically agitated bioreactor systems. Surface immobilization also promotes the natural tendency for plant cells to aggregate, which may improve the synthesis and accumulation of secondary metabolites. In addition, exchange of medium is made simple in surface-immobilized systems, and extracellular secondary products are easily recovered on a continuous basis. However, problems related to regulation of the thickness of the immobilized cell layer, maintenance of the biomass in a productive condition, and vacuolar retention of secondary products have yet to be resolved satisfactorily. This review focusses on two surface-immobilization technologies, differing primarily in the nature and the configuration of the inert support. Prototypes of these designs have been applied to a variety of plant cell systems at bioreactor volumes up to 20 litres. Results obtained with several alternative technologies are also summarized.