Monitoring changes over time of amino acids in cell culture supernatants by high-speed amino acid analysis

Monitoring changes over time of amino acids in cell culture supernatants by high-speed amino acid analysis
Since amino acids are closely related to energy acquisition and protein synthesis, it is important to measure changes in amino acid concentrations over time in culture media for cell growth and production of useful substances. Generally, amino acids are derivatized by o-phthalaldehyde derivatization, ninhydrin derivatization, or other methods, and detected by a UV detector or a fluorescence detector. These detection methods require longer analysis time to sufficiently separate amino acids and insufficient separation from foreign components results in a decrease in the accuracy of quantitation.
To solve this problem, we used the amino acid analysis system "UF-Amino Station”. The system combines pre-column derivatization with (3-pyridyl) carbamic acid succinimidy ester (APDS) reagent and detection by mass spectrometer. This system combines fast separation in reversed-phase mode by pre-column derivatization and detection by mass spectrometer, allowing short analytical time. In addition, since a mass spectrometer is used, amino acids can be selectively detected.
In this study, we used this system to monitor changes over time in the concentration of amino acids in cell culture supernatant.