Hj. Cruz et al., Metabolic responses to different glucose and glutamine levels in baby hamster kidney cell culture, APPL MICR B, 51(5), 1999, pp. 579-585
In this work, a BHK21 clone producing a recombinant antibody/cytokine fusio
n protein was used to study the dependence of cell metabolism on the glucos
e and glutamine levels in the culture medium. Results obtained indicate tha
t both glucose and glutamine consumptions show a Michaelis-Menten dependenc
e on glucose and glutamine concentrations respectively. A similar dependenc
e is also observed for lactate and ammonia productions. The estimated value
of the Michaelis constant for the dependence of lactate production on gluc
ose (K-Lac(Gla)) was 1.4 +/- 0.1 mM and for the dependence of ammonia produ
ction on glutamine (K-Amm(Gln)) was 0.25 +/- 0.11 mM and 0.10 +/- 0.03 mM,
at glucose concentrations of 0.28 mM and 5.6 mM respectively. At very low g
lucose concentrations, the glucose to lactate yield decreased markedly, sho
wing a metabolic shift towards lower lactate production. This metabolic shi
ft was also confirmed by the significant increase in the specific oxygen co
nsumption rate also observed at low glucose concentrations. Although it was
highly dependent on glucose concentration, the oxygen consumption also inc
reased with the increase in glutamine concentration. At very low glutamine
concentrations, the glutamine to ammonia yield increased, showing a more ef
ficient glutamine metabolism.