CELL CULTURE IN MICROGRAVITY: AN INSTRUMENT TO MONITOR GROWTH AND CELL MARKERS

EXISTING METHODS IN CELL CULTURE FOR MONITORING POPULATION GROWTH AND FOR LOCALIZING AND QUANTIFYING CELLULAR BIOMOLECULES REQUIRE HARVESTING OF CELLS, EXTENSIVE HANDLINGAND USUALLY RESULT IN CELL DEATH. THESE LIMITATIONS MUST BEOVERCOME IF CELL CULTURE APPLICATIONS ARE TO BE REALIZED IN MICROGRAVITY ENVIRONMENTS OF MANNED SPACE STATIONS. OPTRA PROPOSES TO DEVELOP AN AUTOMATED INSTRUMENT FOR MONITORING THE GROWTH OF CELL CULTURES IN-SITU AND WITH CAPABILITIES OFQUANTIFYING PARTICULATE CELLULAR PROBES SUCH AS ANTIBODIES LABELLED WITH HEAVY METAL COLLOIDS. THE MEASUREMENT METHODS WILL BE BASED ON PRINCIPLES OF LASER LIGHT SCATTERING. THE OBJECTIVES TO DEMONSTRATE FEASIBILITY OF THE APPROACH WILL BE; TO IDENTIFY SCATTERING COMPONENTS FROMDEAD CELLS SO THAT CULTURE VIABILITY CAN BE ASSESSED; TO DEVELOP MORPHOLOGICAL INDICES BASED ON SCATTERING RATIOS SO THAT CHANGES IN MORPHOLOGY CAN BE DISTINGUISHED FROM CHANGES IN CELL NUMBER; AND TO DEVELOP THE MEANS OF QUANTIFYING PARTICULATE PROBES SO THAT NUMEROUS CELLULAR MOLECULES CAN BE MEASURED BY IMMUNOASSAY. THE THEORETICAL BASIS FOR THE PROPOSED WORK HAS BEEN ESTABLISHEDAND A SUCCESSFUL COMPLETION OF THE OBJECTIVES IS ANTICIPATEDUSING A SOUND EMPIRICAL APPROACH. THE PROPOSED INSTRUMENT WILL FACILITATE DEVELOPMENT OF CELL CULTURE APPLICATIONS IN SPACE AND WILL BE A SIGNIFICANT INNOVATION FOR LAND BASED LABORATORIES.