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Noninvasive measurement of effective diffusivities in cell immobilization gels through use of near‐infrared spectroscopy
Author(s) -
Frazier Brenna L.,
Larmour Paul,
Riley Mark R.
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
biotechnology and bioengineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.136
H-Index - 189
eISSN - 1097-0290
pISSN - 0006-3592
DOI - 10.1002/1097-0290(20010205)72:3<364::aid-bit14>3.0.co;2-n
Subject(s) - thermal diffusivity , agarose , diffusion , chemistry , infrared spectroscopy , analytical chemistry (journal) , chromatography , organic chemistry , thermodynamics , physics
Encapsulated cell systems provide some advantages over typical suspension cell cultivations as higher cell densities may be obtained; however, the supply of nutrients to the cells often is a limiting factor in productivity. In this study, we describe the development of a new approach to characterize the effective diffusivity of nutrients in immobilized cell materials. Near‐infrared spectroscopy is employed to measure nutrient concentrations within a specially designed diffusion chamber that permits noninvasive sampling at ten spatial positions and multiple timepoints. To demonstrate this technique, we measured the effective diffusivity of glutamine in a cell‐free 3% (w/w) agarose gel and determined the effective diffusivity ( D eff ) = 6.46 × 10 −10 m 2 /s, which is in good agreement with theoretical values. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Biotechnol Bioeng 72: 364–368, 2001.