Open AccessOxygen consumption in T‐47D cells immobilized in alginate
Author(s) -
Larsen B. E.,
Sandvik J. A.,
Karlsen J.,
Pettersen E. O.,
Melvik J. E.
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
cell proliferation
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.647
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1365-2184
pISSN - 0960-7722
DOI - 10.1111/cpr.12041
Subject(s) - oxygen , respiration , tissue engineering , cell , cell culture , biophysics , limiting oxygen concentration , cellular respiration , chemistry , biology , biochemistry , anatomy , organic chemistry , genetics
Objectives Encapsulation or entrapment of cells is increasingly being used in a wide variety of scientific studies for tissue engineering and development of novel medical devices. The effect on cell metabolism of such systems is, in general, not well characterized. In this work, a simple system for monitoring respiration of cells embedded in 3‐D alginate cultures was characterized. Materials and methods T‐47D cells were cultured in alginate gels. Oxygen concentration curves were recorded within cell‐gel constructs using two different sensor systems, and cell viability and metabolic state were characterized using confocal microscopy and commercially available stains. Results At sufficient depth within constructs, recorded oxygen concentration curves were not significantly influenced by influx of oxygen through cell‐gel layers and oxygen consumption rate could be calculated simply by dividing oxygen loss in the system per time, by the number of cells. This conclusion was supported by a 3‐D numeric simulation. For the T‐47D cells, the oxygen consumption rate was found to be 61 ± 6 fmol/cell/h, 3–4 times less than has previously been found for these cells, when grown exponentially in monolayer culture. Conclusions The experimental set‐up presented here may be varied in multiple ways by changing the cell‐gel construct 3‐D microenvironment, easily allowing investigation of a variety of factors on cell respiration.