Perfusion Chambers for Small-scale Culture of Micro-organisms

Abstract

ALTHOUGH perfusion methods are not uncommon in tissue culture¹, they are seldom used for the cultivation of micro-organisms^2,3. The reason for this may often be the difficulty of preventing the cells from being carried away by the flowing medium. Usually this can be done either by filtering the culture suspension at the outlet⁴, or by cultivating the micro-organisms on a semipermeable membrane under which the nutrient medium flows^5,6. The apparatus previously used has been rather complicated, and too expensive for serial cultures. By adopting the liquid transport principle of paper chromatography, a number of perfusion chambers of a new type were developed, two of which are shown in Figs. 1 and 2 (see also ref. 7). These chambers are cheap and need little attention during operation.