Development of cell culture monitoring system and novel non-contact pH measurement.

This paper describes a cell culture monitoring system for regenerative medicine. To realize this monitoring system, a new culture vessel and a removable measurement unit were proposed. The measurement unit was installed in the culture vessel and it was used to measure important cell culture parameters (e.g., temperature, CO(2) level, and pH). Thus, the status of the culture could be monitored. In addition, we developed a novel noninvasive method based on spectrophotometry for measuring pH. This method is a non-contact method that permits noninvasive and contamination-free pH measurement. The spectroscopic pH measurements agreed well with pH measurements using an electrode. The error was within 0.02; thus, the new pH measurement method is sufficiently accurate for cell culture. This new system is expected to contribute to advances in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine.