Physiology of myeloma cells grown in glucose-limited chemostat cultures.

A recombinant myeloma NS1-derived clone was grown in chemostat cultures in Dulbecco's MEM/Ham's F12 (1:1) medium containing various concentrations of glucose, at a dilution rate of 0.028 h-1. Serum-supplemented cultures were virtually glucose-limited at a large range of glucose feed concentrations (0.7-5 mM). True glucose-limited cultures, however, were only established at low glucose supply levels to 1.3 mM at a maximum. In cultures obtained at higher glucose concentrations methionine was shown to be the growth-limiting compound. The pattern derived for serum-free chemostat cultures was similar, except that growth yields on glucose were much lower. Glucose was shown to be the growth-limiting substrate in cultures fed with media containing less than 4.5 mM glucose. Upon supplying glucose at higher concentrations such cultures presumably run into methionine and/or tryptophan limitation.