Methods for Off-Line Analysis of Nutrients and Products in Mammalian Cell Culture

Mammalian cell culture has obtained high relevance for the production of recombinant therapeutic and diagnostic proteins from established cell lines. Furthermore, great effort has also been made to grow primary and undifferentiated cells in vitro. In each case it is of great importance for the establishment of a certain culture to know the demands of the cells as exactly as possible. Apart from global parameters like temperature, pH, oxygen tension, and osmolarity, the availability of substrates and the concentration of metabolic waste products play a major role in the performance of the cell culture. In order to monitor the concentrations of these substances and to evaluate the state of the culture, some different methods have to be applied. There is a broad spectrum of well-defined procedures available to estimate the concentration of each of the important substances. In general, it is very much recommended to use standardized working instructions and automatic systems to obtain trustworthy analysis results. Some such reliable methods are listed in this chapter. These procedures are all established in our laboratory and employed routinely during daily work. They should be easily transferred and installed in another lab.