Pressure-controlled CO/sub 2/-air system for animal cell culture
The bicarbonate buffering sytem used in most cell culture media requires a source of air containing a prescribed concentration of CO/sub 2/ (usually 5% to 10%). This CO/sub 2/-air mixture is obtained either by mixing streams of air and 100% CO/sub 2/ in suitable proportions or by using premixed gas from a commercial source. Controls to regulate the flow of CO/sub 2/ and air are standard equipment on many commercial incubators designed for cell-culture laboratories. Culture growing in petri dishes or bottles with loose caps are gassed by diffusion of the CO/sub 2/-air mixture that fills the interior of the incubator. An inherent problem with such systems is that frequent opening of the incubator door depletes the CO/sub 2/-air mixture inside, and cultures may suffer from inconstant environmenal CO/sub 2/ concentrations. In our laboratories we utilize a CO/sub 2/-air system in which the gases are mixed by pressure rather than flow rate. The mixture is stored under pressure and delivered at low pressure, using gum-rubber tubing, to incubators and warm rooms. Outlets in the incubators and warm rooms are connected to individual plastic boxes, each box containing the plates or bottles for a single experiment. Thus the incubators and warm rooms do not require a CO/sub 2/-air environment. An auxiliary outlet of this CO/sub 2/ supply with a separate pressure regulator is used for pressurized filtration of tissue-culture media. Outlets to transfer hoods are used to flush, rubber-lined, screw-capped bottles prior to incubation. This paper describes the construction and operation of such a system and discusses some of its features in relation to the conventional flow-rate mixing systems.
- Research Organization:
- Pennsylvania State Univ., University Park
- OSTI ID:
- 5061924
- Journal Information:
- TCA Man.; (United States), Vol. 4:4
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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