Effects of glutamine and asparagine on recombinant antibody production using CHO-GS cell lines.

A unique and nontraditional approach using glutamine and asparagine supplements for CHO-glutamine synthetase (GS) cell lines was studied. In our experiments, we found that a decrease in pH and an increase in cell death occurred in production phase of a GS cell line, leading to reduced antibody expression and lower antibody yields. The experimental results and the statistical analysis (ANOVA) indicated that additions of glutamine and asparagine in the basal and feed media were effective to buffer the cell culture pH, reduce lactate generation, maintain a higher cell viability profile, and improve antibody productivity. In bench-top bioreactors, glutamine and asparagine supplementation helped to prevent cell death, improve antibody yield, and reduce base usage. Glutamine is normally excluded from culture media for GS cell lines to prevent the bypass of selection pressure. In this study, however, the addition of glutamine did not affect cell population homogeneity, protein quality, or decrease antibody yield of two GS cell lines.

Long-term clinical outcomes of statin use for chronic heart failure: a meta-analysis of 15 prospective studies.

BACKGROUND: The effect of statin treatment on the long-term prognosis in patients with chronic heart failure (CHF) remains uncertain. This study aimed to answer the question by a meta-analysis. METHODS: The Cochrane databases, MEDLINE and EMBASE, were systematically searched. The eligibility of prospective studies that assigned CHF patients to receive statin treatment and a control (no statin treatment), had defined prognostic outcomes as primary endpoint, and had a minimal follow-up of 12 months was determined. RESULTS: Fifteen studies involving 45,110 patients were included in the analysis. Additional statin treatment was associated with reduced all-cause mortality (risk ratios [RR] = 0.71, 95% confidence intervals [CI] 0.61-0.83) and reduced rehospitalisation rate for heart failure (RR = 0.84, 95% CI 0.74-0.96). Statin treatment, however, had little impact on pump failure mortality, cardiovascular mortality, and sudden cardiac death. Atorvastatin treatment appeared to facilitate to reduce all-cause mortality (lnRR = 0.61, p = 0.05) and rehospitalisation for heart failure (lnRR = 0.44, p = 0.04) compared with non-atorvastatin therapy. CONCLUSIONS: Based on the available data, statins persistently decreased all-cause mortality and the incidence of rehospitalisation for heart failure in CHF patients, and the benefits might be partially associated with use of specific statin.

Hydrogen production from a combination of the water-gas shift and redox cycle process of methane partial oxidation via lattice oxygen over LaFeO3 perovskite catalyst.

A redox cycle process, in which CH4 and air are periodically brought into contact with a solid oxide packed in a fixed-bed reactor, combined with the water-gas shift (WGS) reaction, is proposed for hydrogen production. The sole oxidant for partial oxidation of methane (POM) is found to be lattice oxygen instead of gaseous oxygen. A perovskite-type LaFeO3 oxide was prepared by a sol-gel method and employed as an oxygen storage material in this process. The results indicate that, under appropriate reaction conditions, methane can be oxidized to CO and H2 by the lattice oxygen of LaFeO3 perovskite oxide with a selectivity higher than 95% and the consumed lattice oxygen can be replenished in a reoxidation procedure by a redox operation. It is suggested that the POM to H2/CO by using the lattice oxygen of the oxygen storage materials instead of gaseous oxygen should be possibly applicable. The LaFeO3 perovskite oxide maintained relatively high catalytic activity and structural stability, while the carbonaceous deposits, which come from the dissociation of CH4 in the pulse reaction, occurred due to the low migration rate of lattice oxygen from the bulk toward the surface. A new dissociation-oxidation mechanism for this POM without gaseous oxygen is proposed based on the transient responses of the products checked at different surface states via both pulse reaction and switch reaction over the LaFeO3 catalyst. In the absence of gaseous-phase oxygen, the rate-determining step of methane conversion is the migration rate of lattice oxygen, but the process can be carried out in optimized cycles. The product distribution for POM over LaFeO3 catalyst in the absence of gaseous oxygen was determined by the concentration of surface oxygen, which is relevant with the migration rate of lattice oxygen from the bulk toward the surface. This process of hydrogen production via selective oxidation of methane by lattice oxygen is better in avoiding the deep oxidation (to CO2) and enhancing the selectivity. Therefore, this new route is superior to general POM in stability (resistance to carbonaceous deposition), safety (effectively avoiding accidental explosion), ease of operation and optimization, and low cost (making use of air not oxygen).

Unsteady-state direct partial oxidation of methane to synthesis gas in a fixed-bed reactor using AFeO3 (A = La, Nd, Eu) perovskite-type oxides as oxygen storage.

Direct partial oxidation of methane to synthesis gas on AFeO(3) (A = La, Nd, Eu) oxides by a novel sequential redox cyclic reaction in the absence of gaseous oxygen was investigated over a fixed-bed reactor. These oxides were prepared by the sol-gel method and characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) techniques. XRD analysis showed that all AFeO(3) (A = La, Nd, Eu) oxides, calcined at 1173 K, are single-phase perovskites. The CH(4)-TPSR/MS and continuous reaction experiments indicated that the AFeO(3) (A = La, Nd, Eu) oxides provide mostly oxygen species, as the sole oxidant originated from lattice oxygen instead of gaseous oxygen, which can oxidize CH(4) to synthesis gas with high selectivity in the absence of gaseous oxygen. In terms of material economics and the amount of oxygen species for synthesis gas formation, the LaFeO(3) sample exhibits the best performance among these tested AFeO(3) oxides for synthesis gas production. The pulse experiments at different temperatures showed that the rate of oxygen migration during the CH(4) reaction with LaFeO(3) is strongly affected by the reaction temperature, and increases with rising temperature, which is favorable to much more CH(4) selective oxidation at high temperature. The two types of oxygen species are identified by experiments of continuous reactions and pulses, and confirmed by XPS. Methane can be converted selectively to synthesis gas by consumption of lattice oxygen, and general carbonaceous deposits on the catalyst surface do not occur under the appropriate reaction conditions by sequential redox cycles. The performance of selective oxidation of CH(4) to synthesis gas can be recovered by reoxidation using gaseous molecular oxygen; the LaFeO(3) oxide maintains relatively high catalytic activity and structural stability in redox atmospheres.

A new integrated membrane filtration and chromatographic device.

To improve protein separation, a novel integrated device combining membrane filtration and chromatography has been developed. The device basically consists of a hollow fiber filtration module whose shell side is filled with chromatographic resin beads. However, there is an essentially impermeable coated zone near the hollow fiber module outlet. The integrated device enjoys the advantages of both membrane filtration and chromatography; it also allows one to load the chromatographic media directly from the fermentation broth or lysate and separate the adsorbed proteins through the subsequent elution step in a cyclic process. Interfacial polymerization was carried out to coat the bottom section of the hollow fiber membrane; the rest of the hollow fiber membrane remained unaffected. Myoglobin (Mb) and alpha-lactalbumin (alpha-LA) were primarily used as model proteins in a binary mixture; binary mixtures of Mb and bovine serum albumin (BSA) were also investigated. Separation behaviors of binary protein mixtures were studied in devices having either an ultrafiltration (UF) or a microfiltration (MF) membrane. Experimental results show that the breakthrough time and the protein loading capacities were dramatically improved after introducing the impermeable coating in both UF and MF modules. For a synthetic yeast fermentation broth feed, four loading-washing-elution-reequilibration-based cyclic runs for separation of Mb and alpha-LA were performed in the device using a MF membrane with a coated zone without cleaning in between. The Mb and alpha-LA elution profiles for the four consecutive runs were almost superimposable. Due to lower transmembrane flux in this device plus the periodical washing-elution during the chromatographic separation, fouling was not a problem, unlike in conventional microfiltration.

Protein loading, elution, and resolution behavior in a novel device that integrates ultrafiltration and chromatographic separation.

Hollow fiber membranes and chromatographic resin beads are commonly employed in a variety of bioseparation processes. A new class of integrated separation devices is being studied in which the shell side of a hollow fiber device is filled with adsorbents/chromatographic resin beads. Such devices and the corresponding separation methods integrate feed broth clarification by the microfiltration/ultrafiltration membrane with bioproduct purification by the shell-side resin beads either as an adsorbent or as beads in elution chromatography. A mathematical model has been developed for the prediction of the chromatographic behavior of such an integrated device. Simulations have been done to study the effects of axial dispersion, feed flow rate, water permeation rate, fiber packing density, and void fraction. Numerical solutions were obtained by solving the governing equations. This model can reasonably describe the concentration profiles as well as the breakthrough and elution behaviors in the integrated device.