Industrial production of monoclonal antibodies and therapeutic proteins by dialysis fermentation.

A novel and powerful fermentation method is reported for the large-scale growth of mammalian cells and their secreted products. The system described illustrates many of the advantages of conventional batch fermentation processes but in addition has been shown to yield cell densities in excess of 1 x 10(7) cells/ml with concomitant increase in product concentration.

Manifestations of Pott's disease in the head and neck.

Tuberculosis (TB) of the spine, or Pott's disease, is a rarely encountered clinical disorder in the United States today. However, Pott's disease should be strongly suspected in a person who presents with a destructive lesion of the spine involving adjacent vertebrae or a retropharyngeal mass which extends across the midline. The most common presenting signs and symptoms are pain and spinal deformity. The PPD skin test is usually positive, but unlike TB of the larynx, the chest roentgenogram is almost always negative. Diagnosis may be confirmed by needle aspiration or incisional biopsy and culture. The otolaryngologic literature has not previously addressed this clinical entity, thus, our experience with a patient with a retropharyngeal mass and quadriplegia diagnosed as Pott's disease will be presented. Subsequent medical therapy, stabilization, and odontoidectomy resulted in resolution of his neurological deficit. The incidence, pathogenesis, clinical features, and management of Pott's disease will be discussed.

Laser division of the aryepiglottic folds for severe laryngomalacia.

Laryngomalacia is an entity of ill-defined etiology. The clinical situation is one of inspiratory stridor present at birth, or within the newborn period. The stridor may increase in severity for the first several months of life and thereafter spontaneously begins to resolve. In the majority of cases the condition resolves spontaneously by approximately two years of age. This report will present the surgical management of severe laryngomalacia in infants using the carbon dioxide laser to surgically divide the aryepiglottic fold with resolution of the laryngomalacia.

Physical conditions during batch culture of hybridomas in laboratory scale stirred tank reactors.

Due to the nature of animal cell suspension culture, physical conditions during growth such as pH, pO2, pCO2, agitation and aeration are inter-related and can exhibit individual or combined effects on cells. Evaluation of their influence on hybridoma growth and monoclonal antibody production can only be achieved by the use of well-instrumented stirred tank reactors. To determine the effect of the various physical conditions, mouse hybridomas, excreting antibody specific for human IgG, have been cultured in a 2 litre mechanically agitated round bottomed glass vessel, equipped with facilities to monitor and control these parameters during cell growth. Batch culture has been carried out at 36 degrees C in medium supplemented with 5% foetal calf serum (FCS). Clones have also been grown successfully with 2% FCS additions and in serum free medium, after careful adaptation periods. At least two clones have been assessed for comparative purposes.

Variability of the adherence of Candida albicans strains to human buccal epithelial cells: inconsistency of differences between strains related to virulence.

Adherence of Candida albicans to human buccal epithelial cells varied with the composition of the culture medium used to grow the fungus and the donor of epithelial cells, and even from day to day with the same fungal growth conditions and cell donor. Small differences in adherence were detected between four laboratory strains of C. albicans that differed in virulence for mice, and between three pairs of minimally subcultured isolates from cases of oral thrush and from the mouths of healthy donors. However the differences were not only small but did not consistently show that the adherence capacities of the strains virulent for mice or obtained recently from oral thrush were greater than those of the other strains.

Differentiation of extracellular from ingested Candida albicans blastospores in phagocytosis tests by staining with fluorescein-labelled concanavalin A.

In phagocytosis tests with human polymorphonuclear (PMN) cells, extracellular blastospores of Candida albicans could be distinguished microscopically from ingested blastospores mor easily than with methods used previously by staining phagocyte monolayers with fluorescent-labelled concanavalin A. This stain reacted with the cell wall mannan of extracellular blastospores but seemed unable to reach that of the ingested blastospores. This technique both improves determination of phagocytic indices and checks that extracellular blastospores have been washed away before assessment of intracellular survival and growth.