title: Pericellular PO2 and O2 consumption in monolayer cell cultures.
abstract: The current study was based on the uncertainty as to how well monolayer cell cultures growing in customary polystyrene dishes are supplied with O2. For dishes maintained in an air-5% CO2 atmosphere at 37 degrees C, microelectrode measurements revealed that the pericellular steady-state PO2 was 78 mm Hg in confluent bovine endothelial, 110 mm Hg in rat renal mesangial, and 0 (< 0.2) mm Hg in renal (LLC-PK1 and LLC-MK2) or hepatic (HepG2, Hep3B) epithelial cell cultures. These measured PO2 values were in good agreement with those calculated from Fick's law of gas diffusion, applied for the present culture conditions (one-dimensional O2 diffusion, 0.52 cm medium height), the individual cell layer density and the tissue-specific rate of O2 utilization. Our results provide reasons to speculate that conventional monolayer cultures are often hypoxic when incubated in an air-5% CO2 atmosphere. Diffusion-limitations of cellular O2 availability are to be taken into consideration when tissue cultures are used to study PO2-dependent processes.
authors.affiliation: Physiologisches Institut I, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität, Bonn, Germany.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Metzen
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wolff
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Fandrey
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Jelkmann
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001011:Aorta / Q000166:cytology* / Q000378:metabolism; D002417:Cattle; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D004058:Diffusion; D000860:Hypoxia; D008433:Mathematics; D010100:Oxygen / Q000378:metabolism*; D010101:Oxygen Consumption
chemical_list: D010100:Oxygen