US-UK Collaborative Research: Oxygen Consumption of Cells and Tissues

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

This award will support collaborative research between Dr. John Gainer, University of Virginia and Dr. P.A. Arundel, ICI Pharmaceuticals, Macclesfield, Cheshire, England. The objective of the proposed research is an investigation of oxygen consumption in cells and tissues. The manufacture of products from living cells, whether microbial or animal, depends strongly on a thorough knowledge of the metabolism of such cells. Dr. Gainer's current research at the University of Virginia is concerned primarily with factors affecting the production of secondary metabolites from immobilized microbial cells. Work is also ongoing to define the metabolic needs of free and immobilized animal cells, in particular with respect to the oxygen consumption. It has been found that the oxygen consumption rate per cell is quite similar for both animal and microbial cells, and is dependent on the density of the cells--decreasing as the density increases. The next step is to extend these results to very high cell densities. This can be done, in the case of animal cells, by studying the oxygen consumption of tissues. ICI, at their Pharmaceuticals Research Center near Manchester , England, has an active, interdisciplinary group involved in basic research concerning oxygen consumption and metabolic needs of tissues. During a four month research stay in England, Dr. Gainer proposes to carry out joint studies at the ICI Research Center, which will involve both a study of the factors affecting oxygen consumption in tissues and a comparison of those results to previous data for individual cells. Dr. Gainer has had considerable experience in the mass transfer of oxygen to cells and living systems. The Metabolic Dysfunction Team at ICI has excellent facilities, and has approached the problem of oxygen consumption and metabolism from a more reaction-controlled mechanism. The combination of the two viewpoints, along with the facilities necessary for obtaining data, should complement each other well and allow for a more complete description of the entire oxygen consumption process.