PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - James D. Bryers TI - Effects of Cell Recycle on Microbial Cell Viability and Metabolism DP - 1988 Mar 01 TA - PDA Journal of Pharmaceutical Science and Technology PG - 40--46 VI - 42 IP - 2 4099 - http://journal.pda.org/content/42/2/40.short 4100 - http://journal.pda.org/content/42/2/40.full SO - PDA J Pharm Sci Technol1988 Mar 01; 42 AB - Theoretically recycle of active cellular mass back to a continuous fermentation system can significantly improve system productivity. Only recently has membrane separation technology advanced to the state of providing sterile cell separation at 100% efficiency. This work studies the effect of increasing cell recycle ratios on microbial physiology and viability for two microorganisms, a bacterium Klebsiella pneumoniae and a yeast Saccharomyces cerevisae. Comparison of mathematical models, which account for endogenous decay, with experimental results indicate a mechanically induced lysis of bacterial cells that increased with increasing recycle ratio and decreasing dilution rate. In yeast studies, no similar cell damage was observed, but increasing cell recycle ratios did effect metabolism of yeast and altered internal pools of DNA, RNA, and total protein as determined by flow cytometry. Results indicate that steady state unstructured models can only satisfactorily simulate gross changes in cellular concentration in recycle systems but structured models are required to predict recycle effects on intracellular components and physiology.