Kernforschungsanlage Julich Gesellschaft MIT Beschrankter Haftung

Kernforschungsanlage Julich

Kerforshungsanlage Julich

Ulrich Zimmermann

Gunter Pilwat

William M Arnold

Friedrich Riemann

Karin Bock

Hermann-Josef Buers

Mohammed Saleemuddin

Gottfried Kuppers

Heide Schnabl

Hans Coster

Michael Groves

Hermann J Buers

Disclosed is a process and device for fusing cells in which the cells are doped with magnetic particles and exposed to a nonhomogeneous magnetic field which permeates the fusion space in such a way that the doped cells collect close together, and then, in order to create the disruptions in the membrane structures of the adjacent cells, the cells are exposed either to the pulse of an electric field of at least the level of the breakdown voltage or to chemicals which cause the disruptions in the membrane structure such as polyethylene glycol, or to inactivated viruses which cause the disruptions in the membrane structure such as Sendai viruses.

Magnetic device for the fusion of cells

Disclosed is a process and device for facilitating the differentiation of particles in a medium. The particles, which belong to at least two different groups of particles, are enclosed in a chamber bounded by electrodes which produce a rotating electrical field. A means for producing two rotating electrical fields having opposite directions of rotation and variable rotational frequency is provided to be attached to the electrodes. The particles exposed to the rotating electrical field forces with opposite directions of rotation can be differentiated on the basis of their rotational behavior.

Process and device for the differentiation of particles in a medium

Procedure and device for the fusion of cells

Plant protoplasts are suspended in a solution of sodium alginate which is thereafter thickened by the addition of a soluble calcium or lanthanum salt to produce a matrix with large pores permeable to water and gas in which the protoplasts are held. The resulting material, in tape or spheroid form, when stored in a nutrient solution, will prolong the senescence of the protoplasts and increase their sensitivity to polluting materials. When such ribbons or particles are exposed to a polluting environment for a particular period of time, the effect of pollution can be detected by measuring the evolution of ethane or measuring the blocking of the enzyme ribulose-diphosphate-carboxylase, in the latter case using carbon dioxide marked with .sup.14 C. A control experiment in which an identical indicator treated in an equivalent environment without pollutants reveals, by comparison, the effect of the pollution.

Detecting environmental pollutants with protoplasts in alginate matrix

Disclosed is a process and device for facilitating the differentiation of particles in a medium. The particles are exposed to a rotating electrical field of variable rotational frequency. By providing a means for adjusting the frequency of the rotating fields, the particles can be caused to rotate in different directions thereby facilitating differentiation of particles belonging to different groups of particles. An apparatus for implementing this process includes at least three electrodes which are arranged so as to form a space therebetween. A device for producing a rotating field of variable rotational frequency is connected to the electrodes.

Disclosed is a process and device for determining which cells of a suspension containing cells of the same species and genus are secreting cellular substances. Such determinations are made by exposing the cells to rotating electrical field forces of variable rotational speed and differentiating the cells secreting the cellular substances from the other cells by means of their rotational behavior which differs from that of the other cells.

Process and device for the determination of cells secreting cellular

The present invention relates to a method involving enzymatic catalyzed chemical reactions with substrates dissolved in an aqueous solution by means of enzymes. Membrane vesicles, loaded with the enzymes, are placed into the aqueous solution. The substrates move into the membrane vesicles where they are decomposed by means of the enzymes trapped in the vesicles. The substances produced by decomposition move out of the vesicles into the aqueous solution. Finally the decomposed substances are separated from the aqueous solution.

Method of enzymatically converting a substrate using membrane vesicles

A method and adsorption medium for isolating and purifying enzymes from a crude enzyme solution of animal organs or tissues. An adsorption medium for bringing about the binding of a predetermined enzyme is introduced into the crude enzyme solution and is left therein until the binding takes place, whereupon the adsorption medium is removed from the crude enzyme solution and the enzyme is separated from the adsorption medium by extraction or elution with a suitable solution. The adsorption medium is in the form of membranes of human or animal erythrocytes which have been hemolyzed by osmosis. Those enzymes which have the same or nearly the same affinity as regards binding on the membranes as does the predetermined enzyme which is to be bound are separated from the membranes prior to introducing the membranes into the crude enzyme solution. The amount of the enzymes first removed that is bound being less than the amount of erythrocytes used to form the membranes.

Method for isolating and purifying enzymes from a crude enzyme solution

A mass, and method of preparing such mass, and using the same for adsorbing metal ions from a physiological solution by means of living cells suspended in the solution. The cells suspended in the solution at a density of up to 20% by weight are exposed to an electric field of such intensity and over such a period of time that the membrane of the cells will be so changed that substances present in the interior of the cells and having a diameter within the range of from 2 to 50 A, such as potassium and proteins, pass from the interior of the cells into the physiological solution. The electric force or intensity is limited in such a way that the changes in the membrane of the cells can be healed by regeneration of the cells. The mass is introduced into the aqueous solution, such as sea water, lake water or waste water, and left therein until the mass as adsorbed therefrom the metal at a desired concentration, whereupon the mass is separated from the aqueous solution.

Mass and a method of preparing same of living cells of organisms for

Loaded cells suspended in a physiological solution are prepared in a process in which their volume is expanded by osmotic pressure. Cells so prepared suspended in a physiological solution, when injected into the bloodstream of a living body are preferentially accumulated in the spleen and liver of the body, which treats them as foreign bodies, even though the original cells may have been cells of an animal of the same species. Similarly by storing the loaded cells in a solution containing substances such as glutadialdehyde, formaldehyde that react with the protein phase of membranes or which, like difluoro dinitrobenzene, react with the lipid layer thereof, the loaded cells can also be caused to be broken down by the spleen and/or liver. Premature release of the contents of the loaded cells is prevented and timely release of such contents is assured by incorporating other materials into the loaded cells during the preparation process in accordance with the related application of the same inventors, Ser. No. 859,240 filed Dec. 9, 1977, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,224,313, issued Sept. 23, 1980.

Physiological preparation containing loaded cells of expanded volume in

Magnetic substances in particles of a diameter in the range between 1 and 20 nm are suspended in the physiological solution by which cells are loaded with materials when their cell membranes have increased permeability, the magnetic materials being provided in such dosing, that when the cells are loaded, separated from the loading solution and prepared for use in a fresh physiological solution, thereafter injected to a living body, they can be collected and held fast at a predetermined location, for example, at the location of a tumor, by the effect of an external magnetic field. Ferritin, magnetite, cobalt ferrite, nickel ferrite and other ferrimagnetic, ferromagnetic or even paramagnetic compounds can be incorporated into loaded cells for this purpose.

Physiological preparation containing loaded cells in suspension and a

A material capable of forming hydrogen bonds or covalent bonds with loading materials incorporated in loaded cells is introduced into the cells with the loading materials to inhibit the destruction of the cell membranes by the loading material after the permeability of the membranes is brought back down to its normal value. In order to provide for the hydrogen bond formation with common loading materials, such as methotrexate, proteins such as albumin and sugars such as sucrose are effective. The time period during which these materials inhibit a destructive effect on the membranes of loaded cells is well defined. Accordingly, when cells are loaded with a medicament for interaction with substances external to the cells in a physiological solution in which they are placed, which materials have no destructive effect on the cell membranes, it is advantageous to load the cells also with a material having such a destructive effect, such as pronase P, and at the same with a sugar or a protein for delaying its effect, so that the medicament will be released by destruction of the cell membranes after a predetermined time. In this manner, by injection into an animal bloodstream of a suspension of loaded cells prepared according to the invention suspended in a physiological solution, the timing of the release of a medicament into the bloodstream can be controlled.

Physiological preparation containing loaded cells in suspension and an

A method of and an apparatus for determining the dielectric breakdown chateristics and size of membrane-sheathed particles such as living-organism cells and the apparent size of such particles after breakdown of the membrane, makes use of two measuring orifices traversed by an electrolyte across which an increasing electric field is applied during the measuring process in which the particles successively traverse one of the orifices. The current through the measuring orifice deviates from the linear with increasing field generated preferably by a sawtooth voltage, the current change being used to measure the particle variables stated.

Method of and apparatus for determining the breakdown characteristics

A device for increasing the permeability of the skin of cells of living bgs, according to which the respective cells are introduced in the form of a suspension into an electrically conductive liquid thereby there is formed a physiological electrolyte solution which is passed into one of two chambers through a passage of a partition. This partition separates a container into these two chambers, each chamber having an electrode. This passage surrounds the focus of an electric field. The cells in the electrolyte solution are exposed to the electric field while passing from one chamber to the other chamber until macromolecules having a radius of at least 5.degree. are exchanged through the cell skin between the solution in the interior of the cells and the physiological electrolyte solution.

Device for increasing the permeability of the skin of cells of living

A method of and device for increasing the permeability of the skin of cells f living beings, according to which the respective cells are introduced in the form of a suspension into an electrically conductive liquid. Thereby there is formed a physiological electrolyte solution which is passed into one of two chambers through a passage of a partition. This partition separates a container into these two chambers, each chamber having an electrode. This passage surrounds the focus of an electric field. The cells in the electrolyte solution are exposed to the electric field while passing from one chamber to the other chamber until macromolecules having a radius of at least 5 A are exchanged through the cell skin between the solution in the interior of the cells and the physiological electrolyte solution.

Growing community of inventors

Julich, Germany

Ulrich Zimmermann