A new photometric method for oxygen consumption measurements in cell suspensions

A new technique is described for measuring O2 consumption rates and O2 concentrations in suspensions of respiring cells. Aliquots of a cell suspension kept in a special thermostated precision syringe are injected into the measuring system in defined time intervals. The O2 content of these samples is determined photometrically, as reported previously. The O2 consumption per cellular wet weight and/or per single cell can be calculated from the cell volume fraction, the physical density, the cell concentration in the suspension, and the time-dependent decline of the O2 concentration in the precision syringe. The minimum detectable amount of O2 is 0.1 microliter O2, which corresponds to 0.001 (vol/vol) of O2 if a 100-microliters sample of suspended cells is analyzed. Reproducibility of the O2 consumption measurement is 9% of the measured value. The advantages offered by this method are the straightforward calibration in absolute terms, the short time required for one analysis (2-6 min), a high sensitivity, the simultaneous determination of overall O2 concentration and O2 consumption rates in cell suspensions, and the great variability in the application.