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Oxygen microenvironment and respiratory oscillations in cultured mammalian cells

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Abstract

OXYGEN transport in cultures of attached mammalian cells depends on the kinetics of gas diffusion through the overlaying medium. Working with liver parenchymal cells, Stevens1 calculated that the oxygen requirements and energy demands of a monolayer culture could not be met by atmospheric pO2 if the fluid overlay was deeper than 0.34 mm. McLimans2 theorised that under the standard medium overlay of 1.5–5.0 mm, oxygen depletion by a respiring monolayer of liver parenchymal cells would exhaust the atmospheric oxygen supply at the plane of the attached cell sheet within 35 min. His model suggests that adaptive growth of cultured cells occurs only when respiration does not exceed the delivery of oxygen to the monolayer.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Cellular Physiology, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Washington, DC, 20012

    ROBERT J. WERRLEIN & ANDRÉ D. GLINOS

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  1. ROBERT J. WERRLEIN
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  2. ANDRÉ D. GLINOS
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WERRLEIN, R., GLINOS, A. Oxygen microenvironment and respiratory oscillations in cultured mammalian cells. Nature 251, 317–319 (1974). https://doi.org/10.1038/251317a0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/251317a0

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