Methods of harvesting mammalian cells grown in tissue culture

Novel thermostable serine collagenase fromThermoactinomyces sp. 21E: purification and some properties

A thermophilic actinomycete strain Thermoactinomyces sp. 21E producing a highly thermostable serine collagenase was isolated from Bulgarian soil. The collagenase, produced extracellular by Thermoactinomyces sp. 21E, was purified to homogeneity by heat treatment, ultrafiltration, saturation with ammonium sulfate and gel filtration chromatography with a 101-fold increase in specific activity and 58% recovery. The collagenase has a relative molecular mass of 50000 by SDS-PAGE. The optimum temperature for the enzyme activity was 60-65 degrees C in the absence of Ca(2+) and 70-75 degrees C in the presence of Ca(2+). About 40% of the original activity remaining after incubation at 85 degrees C for 30 min in the presence of Ca(2+). The optimum pH for the enzyme activity was 9.0-9.5 and the enzyme was stable for 1h at 70 degrees C in the pH range from 7.5 to 12.5. The collagenase was strongly inhibited by active-site inhibitors of serine protease PMSF and DFP, which indicated that the enzyme is serine protease. The enzyme activity was completely inhibited by Hg(2+), Cu(2+) and Fe(2+). However, Ca(2+ )strongly activated the collagenase activity. The collagenase from Thermoactinomyces sp. 21E showed high activity toward type I collagen, acid-soluble collagen, gelatin and Pz-PLGPR. However, elastin for collagenase was inert as substrate. The properties of the collagenase from strain 21E suggest that this enzyme is a new collagenolytic protease that differs from the collagenases and serine proteases reported so far.

Adenosine metabolism in human skin fibroblasts

When normal fibroblasts were incubated in media containing various initial concentrations of [8-14C]adenosine, ranging from 0.25 to 400 microM, under conditions where product formation was linear, greater than 90% of the intracellular label was found in adenine nucleotides, largely in the form of ATP, less than 1% of the intracellular label appeared in the nucleic acids, the remaining intracellular label was found in adenosine, inosine, and hypoxanthine, and the media contained two labeled products, inosine and hypoxanthine. Production of labeled inosine and hypoxanthine from adenosine was considerably lower in adenosine deaminase (ADA)-deficient cells than in normal cells and virtually eliminated in normal cells by the presence of 1 microM deoxycoformycin (a potent ADA inhibitor), suggesting that labeled inosine and hypoxanthine production requires ADA activity. Initial rates of deamination (inosine and hypoxanthine formation) and phosphorylation (adenine nucleotide formation) were estimated by examining the metabolic fate of [8-14C]adenosine in hypoxanthine phosphoribosyltransferase-deficient cells, which cannot recycle hypoxanthine. The estimate of the initial rate of phosphorylation exceeded that of deamination only at the lowest adenosine concentration examined (0.25 microM). The ratio of deamination to phosphorylation rose from approximately 1 at 0.41 microM to approximately 15 at 400 microM extracellular adenosine.

Adaptation of BHK-21 cells to growth in shaker culture and subsequent challenge by Japanese encephalitis virus

Baby hamster kidney (BHK-21) cells were adapted to grow in shaker culture using Waymouth medium 752/1 containing 20 mM N-2-hydroxyethyl-piperazine-N'-2'-ethanesulfonic acid buffer and supplemented with 2.5% (vol/vol) calf serum, 0.002% (wt/vol) sodium oleate, and 0.2% fatty acid-free bovine serum albumin (WO2.5). Infectivity of Japanese encephalitis virus grown in the cells adapted to WO2.5 approached 2 x 10(8) plaque-forming units per ml. The culture volume of infected cells was reduced fivefold 12 h after infection. This step resulted in a 10-fold increase in infectivity over that obtained from infected cultures not subjected to volume reduction.

Standardization of human diploid fibroblast cultivation: trypsinization procedure

Human embryonic diploid lung fibroblasts were used to examine the influence of the trypsinizing procedure on the growth and adsorption of these cells. The best buffer for trypsinizing these cells was Hanks balanced salt solution containing 0.5% lactalbumin hydrolysate. Trypsinizing cells at 4 C gave better growth results than trypsinization at higher temperatures. The presence of antibiotics in the trypsin buffer increased the longevity of the cells. Cells initially trypsinized from tissue in phosphate-buffered saline without Ca(2+) or Mg(2+) and 0.33 m sucrose plus 10(-3)m Mg(2+) gave rise to better subsequent growth and adsorption than cells from tissue trypsinized in other buffers.

Standardization of human diploid cell cultivation

Human embryonic diploid lung fibroblasts grown in Eagle's medium were exposed continually to a variety of environmental conditions over a large number of passages to observe how these conditions affected the growth and longevity of these cells in vitro. The cells grew well at temperatures between 34 and 37 C and some cells could be adapted to grow at 40 C. Very limited growth occurred at 30 to 31 C; however, confluent monolayers of cells could be maintained for months at 30 C and still give rise to actively growing cultures. Increasing the amino acid concentration in Eagle's medium or the calf serum concentration above 10% had no effect on the growth rate or longevity. One per cent calf serum could not support prolonged active growth. Trypsin concentrations between 1 and 0.1% and crystalline trypsin at 50 mug/ml showed no influence on cell growth. Ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid treatment and scraping, however, destroyed many of the cells, and the survivors grew poorly. The clonal morphology varied with age. Young cells frequently gave rise to densely packed clones, whereas older cells gave rise to clones with widely scattered cells. The cloning efficiency was high when the cells were young but decreased rapidly with successive passage. It was relatively constant from the 7th to 20th passage at about 15%.