Why Use the GlucCell® Glucose Monitoring System to
Measure Glucose Concentration in Cell Culture Media or
Defined fermentation media ?
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Cell cultures are widely used for expressing heterogonous genes and producing
therapeutic proteins. Among them CHO, HK273, NSO, and SF9 are the most popular
cell lines used in cell cultures. Glucose is the major carbon source used in cultures.
Therefore the monitoring and control of glucose in cultures is one of the most essential
elements of the production process. As a result many methods and devices have been
developed for this purpose. The most commonly used devices are biochemical analyzers
including the YSI Inc. Biochemical Analyzer, the NOVA Biomedical Co. Bioprofile, and
many others. All commercial products available today are desk top devices and not
inexpensive. The GlucCell Meter is the only palm-sized and inexpensive glucose meter
available on the market that measures glucose content in cell culture media.
A blood glucose self-monitoring device is an inexpensive and rapid detecting method for
measurement of glucose concentration in blood for diabetes patients. Many scientists
have attempted to use this device for monitoring glucose concentration in cell cultures.
However, because the blood contains a wide array of molecules some of which interfere
with the glucose enzyme coupled with redox reactions, the error in measurement of
glucose in culture medium becomes too large to be acceptable and applicable.
In collaboration with the manufacturer we have modified both the hardware and software
to perfect the application of this device in most cell cultures. The GlucCell® Glucose
Monitoring System requires no calibration for direct reading. It is simple to use, fast
measuring, requires only a very small sample (<3 µL) and reasonably accurate compared
to others.
The GlucCell measures glucose from samples taken on disposable glucose test strips.
These strips require a sample volume of less than 3 µL and will produce results in less
than 15 seconds. The meter can store up to 180 test results with corresponding times and
dates.
Disposable test strips, a 3 µL size sample, and compact size enables operation of the
GlucCell® Glucose Monitoring System in a biosafety cabinet, eliminating risk of
contamination from bioharzardous samples.
The GlucCell Meter also does not require using other reagents, re-calibration, and major
equipment maintenance like other commercial desk-top glucose analyzers. Each test strip
costs $1. And because only one test strip is needed for each measurement , the operating
cost is just about one dollar.
Although the device was designed for cell culture use, it has been successfully used by
many of our customers for glucose measurement in bacterial. fungal and algae
fermentation broths if the media are defined.
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The following figures illustrate the reliability and accuracy of glucose measurement using
the GlucCell meter in cell culture media. There is a greater than 99.5% correlation
between CESCO’s GlucCell meter and NOVA’s BioProfile Biochemical Analyzer (figures
1 & 2). The GlucCell Meter is also reliable in a wide variety of culture media (figure
3).
Gluc Conc. Measured by GlucCell (mg/dl)
600
 MEN
SF-900 II
HyQ-PF CHO MPS
Excell 301 SFM
M199+5% FBS
 MEM+10% FBS
 MEM+20% FBS
DMEM w/o FBS
DMEM/F12 w/o FBS
RPMI 1640 w/o FBS
500
400
300
200
100
0
0
100
200
300
400
500
Gluc Conc. Measured by Std #1 analyzer (mg/dl)
Measured Glucose Conc. (mg/dl)
600
ELISA
NOVA
YSI
GlucCell
500
400
300
200
100
0
0
100
200
300
400
Known Glucose Conc. (mg/dl)
500
600
600