A simple method to determine evaporation and compensate for liquid losses in small-scale cell culture systems
Vincent Wiegmann1, Cristina Bernal Martinez2, Frank Baganz3
1The Advanced Centre for Biochemical Engineering, Department of Biochemical Engineering, University College London, Torrington Place, London, WC1E 7JE, UK.
Objectives:
Establish a method to indirectly measure evaporation in microwell-based cell culture systems and show that the proposed method allows compensating for liquid losses in fed-batch processes.
Results:
A correlation between evaporation and the concentration of Na+ was found (R2 = 0.95) when using the 24-well-based miniature bioreactor system (micro-Matrix) for a batch culture with GS-CHO. Based on these results, a method was developed to counteract evaporation with periodic water additions based on measurements of the Na+ concentration. Implementation of this method resulted in a reduction of the relative liquid loss after 15 days of a fed-batch cultivation from 36.7 ± 6.7% without volume corrections to 6.9 ± 6.5% with volume corrections.
Conclusion:
A procedure was established to indirectly measure evaporation through a correlation with the level of Na+ ions in solution and deriving a simple formula to account for liquid losses.
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