[Cell transplantation: current treatments and future prospects]. / Transplantation cellulaire: traitements actuels et perspectives d'avenir.

Regenerative medicine aims to replace a body function or specific cell loss. It includes therapies at the forefront of modem medicine, issuing from translational biomedical research. Transplantation of organs and cells has revolutionized the management of patients for whom medical treatment is a failure. Unfortunately, organ shortage is limiting treatment possibility. As an example, among the 15,000 patients with type I diabetes in Switzerland, only approximately 30 can receive a pancreas or an islet transplant per year. Second example, 500 patients die each year in Switzerland from alcoholic cirrhosis because no treatment is available. Transplantation of islet cells, hepatocytes, mesenchymal stem cells or dopaminergic neurons represents hope fora therapy available for large populations of patients.

Automation of selective assays for on-line bioprocess monitoring by flow-injection analysis.

On-line analysis of one component in a complex media used for bioprocesses requires the application of selective tests such as enzymes assays. Because these assays are susceptible to interference by other medium components and have a limited detection range, automatic sample pretreatment is a prerequisite. The progress made with automatic sample pretreatment in flow-injection analysis makes this technique particularly suitable for on-line monitoring of bioprocesses. Moreover, newly developed software control systems may improve the necessary robustness of flow-infection analysis systems.

Influence of substrate or product inhibition on the performance of enzyme reactors.

For the design of an enzyme reactor a detailed knowledge of the kinetic parameters of the catalyst under operational conditions is essential. For technical applications high initial substrate concentrations and high degrees of conversions are desirable, in order to save reactor volume and energy in recovery processes. Most of the kinetic data available in the literature have been derived from dilute solutions under initial rate conditions. These data cannot be extrapolated with confidence for technically interesting concentrations because substrate as well as product-inhibition may occur, which would not be observed in dilute solutions and by initial rate measurements. Because of this difficulty effective and fast methods to obtain significant data for technical applications have been developed based on-line rate determinations. Such extensive treatment has proved necessary for the following enzymes: alanine dehydrogenase, formate dehydrogenase and alpha-glucosidase, indicating that we are dealing with a general phenomenon.

Investigation of the action mechanism of a cellodextrin glucohydrolase using soluble cellodextrins as substrates.

A mathematical model was developed that can satisfactorily describe the system of parallel and series reactions during the degradation of cellodextrins by a glucohydrolase in batch experiments. The enzyme sequentially splits off glucose units from the oligomer chains. Using a thin-channel membrane reactor, the model was then shown to be able to predict the conversion of cellohexaose in continuous experiments. This has, to the best of our knowledge, been the first time that such an oligosaccharide conversion has been experimentally followed and modeled for a continuous stirred tank reactor.

Purification of polymeric biomaterials.

Employing a combined filtration and precipitation method, the endotoxin concentration in sodium alginate (SA) and sodium cellulose sulfate (SCS) was reduced to a value of 200 EU/g polymer. This is one tenth of the regulatory threshold calculated, for example, for an appropriate bioartificial pancreas that consists of approximately 420,000 encapsulated islets of Langerhans. The low endotoxin (ET) levels were maintained below this threshold during a six-month storage period. The purification procedure of the polymers did not negatively influence the final microcapsule properties. The mechanical stability of microcapsules from purified material is even slightly higher than that of microcapsules from the original polymers. A second approach to avoid endotoxin release from the device is its direct complexation during the bead or capsule formation process. The durability of endotoxin binding in binary, ternary, and quaternary complexes could be demonstrated for storage in culture medium and saline. Very low total endotoxin release from the complexes was detected after three months in culture medium and five months in saline. This complexation is primarily based on electrostatic interactions with the participating cationic components and provides additional security for the final bioartificial organ or delivery device.

Operational stability of enzymes. Acylase-catalyzed resolution of N-acetyl amino acids to enantiomerically pure L-amino acids.

The method of measuring enzyme deactivation by monitoring necessary addition of fresh enzyme to keep a constant degree of conversion in a CSTR at constant [E] x tau, the product of concentration of active enzyme [E] and residence time tau, was successfully applied to acylase I from porcine kidney and Aspergillus oryzae fungus. Fungal enzyme was found to be more stable than kidney enzyme. Activation by both Co2+ and Zn2+ ions also yielded increased operational enzyme stability: Co2+ and Zn2+ are better stabilizers than activators. Mg2+ and Ca2+ are found to be neither activators nor stabilizers. Fungal acylase partially deactivated by exposition to a metal-free medium in the CSTR was reactivated by addition of Zn2+, demonstrating that loss of Zn2+ from the enzyme molecule is mainly responsible for deactivation in a continuous reactor.

Preparative enzymatic synthesis of activated neuraminic acid by using a microbial enzyme.

Using Escherichia coli K-235 as a production strain in a fed-batch fermentation process with an optimized sorbitol/yeast extract medium, we were able to produce 640 U of CMP-Neu5Ac synthetase in 10 l scale (64 U/l) and 9200 U (total enzyme) in 200 l scale (390 U/kg wet weight). By simple one-step purification procedures, enzyme preparations were obtained that could be used efficiently for the synthesis of CMP-Neu5Ac from CTP and Neu5Ac with over 90% yield, from Neu5Ac, CMP, and ATP or phosphoenolpyruvate by in situ generation of CTP, and from CTP, pyruvate, and ManNAc or GlcNAc by in situ generation of Neu5Ac.

New multicomponent capsules for immunoisolation.

A new generation of microcapsules based on the use of oligomers which participate in polyelectrolyte complexation reactions has been developed. These freeze-thaw stable capsules have been applied as a bioartificial pancreas and have resulted in normoglycemia for periods of six months in concordant xenotransplantations. The new chemistry permits the control of permeability and mechanical properties over a wide range and can be adapted both to microcapsule and hollow fiber geometries rendering it a robust tool for encapsulation in general. Methods, and metrics, for the characterization of the mechanical properties and permeability of microcapsules are presented.

On-line monitoring of an animal cell culture with multi-channel flow injection analysis.

A multi-channel flow injection analysis system was used for on-line monitoring of a continuous animal cell culture with high cell density. With this system, the glucose, lactate and glutamine concentration were determined using immobilized dehydrogenases, ammonium using an aqueous o-phthaldialdehyde solution. Glutamine concentration was determined on the basis of the difference between a glutamine and a glutamate measurement. To prevent disturbance of the measurement and pollution of the system, the analytes in the sample were separated from high molecular compounds by on-line dialysis. On-line gas dialysis was used to avoid interference of other amino groups with the ammonium determination. In addition, dialysis was used as a dilution step. The measurement time for all four components was 42 min. This time included a final washing period after the analysis cycle. The system was calibrated once a day. Two continuous cultivations of a hybridoma cell line immobilized in open-porous glass carriers were monitored, using a fluidized bed reactor as cultivation system. The concentration of glutamine, glucose and ammonium determined with the on-line FIA system were in good agreement with the off-line data determined once a day. Only the lactate data showed some deviation. The immobilized enzyme reactors could be used for up to 3000-5000 injections. During the first cultivation, lasting 200 h, the start up period of the reactor was monitored. The on-line measurements described much better the time-course of the concentrations than the off-line data. It was possible to estimate the growth rate of the cells in the micro-carriers by the on-line data. In the course of the second cultivation, which lasted almost 1000 h, the influence of the dissolved oxygen concentration on the cell metabolism was monitored. It was noted that a sudden change of the glutamine concentration in the feed caused a fast change of the consumption and production rate of the measured metabolites.

On-line control of an immobilized hybridoma culture with multi-channel flow injection analysis.

An immobilized hybridoma cell line was cultivated at controlled glucose and glutamine concentrations. On-line analysis of the substrates was carried out with a multi-channel flow injection analysis system. The analysis system also determined on-line the lactate and ammonium concentration. The substrate concentrations were controlled using an adaptive-control strategy. This strategy consisted of the estimation of the real-time concentrations and volumetric substrate consumption rates by an Extended Kalman Filter, and a minimum variance controller, which used the estimated parameters to set the feed rates of the substrates. The closed-loop control was used to start-up two cultures with either glucose or glutamine as control-substrate for the medium feed rate. The controller kept the concentration of the control-substrate constant by enhancing the medium feed rate simultaneously to the increasing volumetric consumption rate of the substrate. When glutamine was used as control-substrate, the glucose concentration remained relatively constant, whereas the glutamine concentration decreased during the start-up at a constant glucose concentration. This indicates that glutamine is consumed faster than glucose and will be a better control-substrate to avoid limitation during the start-up of a culture with the applied hybridoma cell line. During the colonization of the microcarriers, the yield of ammonium on glutamine decreased from 0.80 to 0.55 (mol mol-1), indicating a change in the glutamine metabolism. The yield of lactate on glucose stayed constant for both experiments. During long-term culture of more than 800 h, the controller kept both the glucose and glutamine concentrations constant at perfusion rates between 0.50 h-1 and 0.15 h-1. The medium, glucose and glutamine feed rate were independently controlled. Both the specific glutamine and glucose consumption rates remained constant for all perfusion rates, which was probably as a result of the constant concentrations. The specific monoclonal antibody production rate decreased with the perfusion rate decreasing from 0.40 h-1 to 0.20 h-1. The immobilized-cell concentration decreased only at the lowest perfusion rate. Both effects could not be explained directly by the increasing ammonium and lactate concentrations nor by the decreasing amino-acid concentrations.

Evaluation of parallel operated small-scale bubble columns for microbial process development using Staphylococcus carnosus.

Shake flasks and pH-controlled small-scale bubble columns were compared with respect to their usefulness as a basic tool for process development for human calcitonin precursor fusion-protein production with Staphylococcus carnosus. Parallel control of the pH (and making use of the base addition data) is necessary to study the effects of medium composition, to identify pH-optima and to develop a medium, which minimizes the acid excretion of S. carnosus. This medium with glycerol as energy source and yeast extract as carbon and nitrogen source resulted in cell dry weight concentration in shake flasks of 5 g l(-1), which were thus improved by a factor of 10. Cell dry weight concentrations of up to 12.5 g l(-1) were measured in the batch process with pH-controlled small-scale bubble columns due to their higher oxygen transfer capability. In contrast to shake flasks it was demonstrated, that the batch process performance of recombinant S. carnosus secreting the human calcitonin precursor fusion-protein was identical within the estimation error in pH-controlled small-scale bubble columns compared to the stirred-tank reactor.

Polycations as displacer in high-performance bioseparation.

Displacement chromatography is an interesting but up to now rarely used type of preparative biochromatography. The lack of well-engineered and accessible displacer contributes to this phenomenon. In this paper a novel type of displacer is introduced for cation-exchange displacement chromatography, which will soon become commercially available. The molecule is a well-defined PolyDADMAC [poly(diallyldimethylammonium chloride)] with a molar mass of less than 35000 g/mol, an exclusively linear structure and a molar mass polydispersity of less than 1.5. A method for synthesizing such a polymer at high yields is described. The PolyDADMAC is shown to be an efficient displacer of basic proteins from strong cation-exchange columns.

Human chymotrypsinogen B production with Pichia pastoris by integrated development of fermentation and downstream processing. Part 1. Fermentation.

Based on an integrated approach of genetic engineering, fermentation process development, and downstream processing, a fermentative chymotrypsinogen B production process using recombinant Pichia pastoris is presented. Making use of the P. pastoris AOX1-promotor, the demand for methanol as the single carbon source as well as an inducer of protein secretion enforced the use of an optimized feeding strategy by help of on-line analysis and an advanced controller algorithm. By using an experimental system of six parallel sparged column bioreactors, proteolytic product degradation could be minimized while also optimizing starting conditions for the following downstream processing. This optimization of process conditions resulted in the production of authentic chymotrypsinogen at a final concentration level of 480 mg.L(-)(1) in the whole broth and a biomass concentration of 150 g.L(-)(1) cell dry weight, thus comprising a space-time yield of 5.2 mg.L(-)(1).h(-)(1). Alternatively to the high cell density fermentation approach, a continuous fermentation process was developed to study the effects of reduced cell density toward oxygen demand, cooling energy, and biomass separation. This development led to a process with a highly increased space-time yield of 25 mg.L(-)(1).h(-)(1) while reducing the cell dry weight concentration from 150 g.L(-)(1) in fed-batch to 65 g.L(-)(1) in continuous cultivation.

Indirect electrochemical reduction of nicotinamide coenzymes.

Nicotinamide coenzymes nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD(+)) and nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADP(+)) were electrochemically reduced to NADH and NADPH, respectively. As direct reduction of nicotinamide coenzymes leads to inactive by-products, an indirect method using (pentamethylcyclopentadienyl-2,2'-bipyridine aqua) rhodium (III) as the mediator, was applied. A phosphate buffer solution, pH 8, with 1-10 mM NAD(P)(+) and 2.5-200 microM mediator, was pumped through a glassy carbon packed bed cathode. Virtually all the NAD(P)(+) was reduced to NAD(P)H in the cell. No sign of mediator loss due to side-reactions was detected though the mediator molecules shuttled hundreds of times between the oxidised and the reduced form. Adsorption of mediator molecules on the surface of the carbon cathode was found to be important for the reduction process. Due to strong adsorption, only minute amounts of mediator were consumed.

Studies on the substrate specificity of a peptide amidase partially purified from orange flavedo.

We recently reported the isolation and some properties of an unusual enzyme called peptide amidase (Steinke, D. and Kula, M. R. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. Engl. 1990, 29, 1139-1140). Here we describe the partial purification of the enzyme from the flavedo of orange fruits and discuss results of a detailed study of the substrate range of the peptide amidase, which is extremely wide and useful for a C-terminal enzymatic deprotection in peptide synthesis under very mild conditions. The substrate spectrum includes protected or unprotected peptide amides and N-protected amino acid amides. The chain length of the substrate peptide amide, as well as the amino acid composition, including the C-terminal amino acid side chain, are of minor importance. The peptide amidase is stereoselective with regard to the C-terminal position, since only L-amino acid amides are accepted as substrates, with the exception of proline. Notably, side chain amides are not deamidated. The peptide amidase is free of any proteolytic activity, which would hydrolyze internal peptide bonds of substrate peptides. In the penultimate position D-amino acids are tolerated; peptide modifications toward the N-terminal region do not abolish the enzymatic deamidation at the C-terminus.

Formation of peptide bonds by carboxypeptidase c from orange leaves.

Carboxypeptidase c partially purified from orange leaves was studied as a catalyst for enzymatic peptide synthesis. Various N-protected ester- and nucleophile compounds were evaluated in order to determine the substrate specificity. For further characterization of the synthetic reaction, optimum pH and the influence of the N-terminal protecting group were studied. Kinetic investigations revealed considerable differences in Km and Vmax for the nucleophile when the N-terminal protecting group of the substrate was varied.

Pseudomonas fluorescens lipase adsorption and the kinetics of hydrolysis in a dynamic emulsion system.

To elucidate the adsorption characteristics of lipases and to study the influence of the reaction conditions on the catalytic properties of lipases, the hydrolysis of decylchloroacetate by Pseudomonas fluorescens lipase in an emulsion reactor was studied as a model system. During the reaction the droplet size distribution of the emulsion was measured on-line using a particle sizer based on light scattering. Desorption experiments revealed that, at low surface coverage, the initial rate of reaction was not influenced by either the stirring speed or the organic volume fraction. Dilution of the reaction mixture during hydrolysis did not result in a decrease in activity. Based on these results, it is assumed that under the specified conditions adsorption of Pseudomonas fluorescens lipase is quantitative and probably irreversible. Based on activity measurements and assuming that only a monolayer of lipase is active, it is calculated that at saturation the emulsion interface is covered with 3 mg lipase per m2. From these data the average interfacial area covered by one lipase molecule at saturation was calculated to be 1700-2100 A2 per molecule. The emulsion was shown to be dynamic, e.g., during hydrolysis a significant increase in interfacial area was observed as a result of a shift in droplet size distribution to smaller diameters. Experiments indicated that both the formation of decanol and the emulgating effect of the lipase account for these observations. The formation of decanol also resulted in a dramatic decrease in hydrolytic activity. Taking interfacial tension measurements into account, it is shown that decanol accumulates at the liquid-liquid interface.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Short-term immunosuppression reduces fibrotic cellular infiltration around barium-M-alginate microbeads injected intraportally.

INTRODUCTION: One of the major barriers affecting the viability of encapsulated islets is pericapsular fibrotic infiltration (PFI). This study aimed to design strategies to reduce PFI around intraportally injected alginate microbeads. METHODS: Empty, highly purified, barium-M-alginate microbeads (400 microm) were injected intraportally into Lewis rats (3000 beads/rat). Rats (n = 9/group) were treated daily with either rapamycine (RAPA; 1 mg/kg/d p.o.), tacrolimus (TAC; 2 mg/kg/d p.o.), a combination of both, or gadolinium-chloride (GdC13, 20 mg/kg/d i.v., at day -1 and day +4). Treatment was discontinued at 10 days. Three rats/group were sacrificed at 3, 7, and 42 days after transplantation. Cellular composition of PFI was evaluated by immunohistochemistry. Severity of the reaction to the beads was determined by measuring the thickness of PFI on histology. RESULTS: The main cellular components of PFI in the liver were macrophages and myofibroblasts. There was a significant (P <.05) reduction in the thickness of PFI in all treated groups, even 6 weeks after transplantation. Encapsulated rat islets showed excellent insulin response to glucose in vitro, with a stimulation index of 3.6 +/- 2.0. CONCLUSION: Combination of highly purified alginate with short-term immunosuppression reduces fibrotic overgrowth around microbeads injected intraportally.

Use of the mitochondria toxicity assay for quantifying the viable cell density of microencapsulated jurkat cells.

The mitochondria toxicity assay (MTT assay) is an established method for monitoring cell viability based on mitochondrial activity. Here the MTT assay is proposed for the in situ quantification of the living cell density of microencapsulated Jurkat cells. Three systems were used to encapsulate the cells, namely a membrane consisting of an interpenetrating polyelectrolyte network of sodium cellulose sulphate/poly(diallyldimethylammonium chloride) (NaCS/PDADMAC), a calcium alginate hydrogel covered with poly(L-lysine) (Ca-alg-PLL), and a novel calcium alginate-poly(ethylene glycol) hybrid material (Ca-alg-PEG). MTT results were correlated to data obtained by the trypan blue exclusion assay after release of the cells from the NaCS/PDADMAC and Ca-alg-PLL capsules, while a resazurin-based assay was used for comparison in case of the Ca-alg-PEG material. Analysis by MTT assay allows quick and reliable determination of viable cell densities of encapsulated cells independent of the capsule material. The assay is highly reproducible with inter-assay relative standard deviations below 10%.