Fast filtration for metabolome sampling of suspended animal cells

Martin Volmer (1) , Stefan Northoff (2) , Sebastian Scholz (1) , Tobias Thüte (1) , Heino Büntemeyer (1, 2) , Thomas Noll (1)

1 Institute of Cell Culture Technology
2 TeutoCell AG

A new method for sampling suspended animal cells by fast filtration is presented that allows rapid quenching of cellular metabolism and efficient separation of the cells from culture medium. Compared to sampling with a microstructure heat exchanger or centrifugation without prior quenching, the adenylate energy charge and the measured concentrations especially of metabolites with a high turnover rate or of metabolites early in metabolic pathways were substantially higher. No leakage of ATP from the cells was observed when using iso-osmotic NaCl solution in the washing step. The combination of fast filtration and cold methanol extraction is therefore suitable for intracellular metabolomic studies of suspended animal cell cultures and superior to other methods currently applied.

Mots clés: Animal cells; Fast filtration; Metabolome; Microstructure heat exchanger; Quenching; Rapid sampling

Martin Volmer, Stefan Northoff, Sebastian Scholz, Tobias Thüte, Heino Büntemeyer, et al.. Fast filtration for metabolome sampling of suspended animal cells. Biotechnology Letters, 2010, 33 (3), pp.495-502. ⟨10.1007/s10529-010-0466-7⟩. ⟨hal-00640458⟩