Application of living microbial cells entrapped with synthetic resin prepolymers.

Living and growing microbial cells were immobilized by entrapping in synthetic resin gels prepared from their prepolymers, and used in the production of various useful substances. The production of the desired metabolites and also both the activity and the stability of the catalytic systems were seriously affected by the physico-chemical properties of the prepolymers, and those of the resin gels subsequently formed, such as gel network, hydrophilicity-hydrophobicity balance and ionic nature, as well as by the type of bioreactors. Hydroxylation of steroids and production of antibiotics, polypeptides and other biologically active substances, and the effects of gel properties on them are discussed as examples.