AN ENTHALPY BALANCE APPROACH TO THE STUDY OF METABOLIC-ACTIVITY IN MAMMALIAN-CELLS

After a formal explanation of Mayer's enthalpy balance method as appli ed to biological reaction rates, the history of its application is tra ced from Rubner's dog to accounting for the energy of muscle contracti on. The introduction of microcalorimetry allowed the method generally to be used for cells in vitro and now particular emphasis can be paid to the growth of cells for the production of therapeutically-important heterologous proteins. In these systems, enthalpy balance studies con tribute to defining catabolic processes, designing media, understandin g the mechanisms of growth and controlling cultures using heat flux as an on-line sensor of metabolic activity.