Monitoring the Kinetics of Glucose Transfer across a Bioreactor Membrane with a Glucose Sensor

Bioreactors for cell culture, in which hollow fibers are sealed into a protective jacket, cells are seeded in the fibers’ outer surface and a culture medium circulates through the fibers, have been proposed as a bioartificial pancreas. We used a needle-type glucose sensor to study the kinetics of glucose transfer across the membrane of one such device. The glucose transfer was found to be dependent on the flow rate of the circulating medium, which suggests the involvement of an ultrafiltration flux across the membrane. The glucose concentration was heterogeneous within the cell compartment. This heterogeneity, and the delay in transmission of changes in glucose concentration from the circulating medium to the cell compartment, can be ascribed to the large volume of the compartment. The design of these bioreactors should therefore be modified, in order to meet the requirements of glucose transfer kinetics of a bioartificial pancreas.