Continuous-Flow Biosynthesis of Prostaglandin E2 (PGE2)

• Published in: Nippon Nōgeikagaku Kaishi Vol. 59; no. 6; pp. 597 - 603
• Main Authors: NAKAHARA, Toro, HIGUCHI, Katsuhiko, HIRATA, Hirofumi, ISHIKAWA, Kazuhiko, NAKASATO, Satoshi, NISHIMURA, Tsutomu
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: Japanese
• Published: Japan Society for Bioscience, Biotechnology, and Agrochemistry 1985
• ISSN: 0002-1407; 1883-6844
• DOI: 10.1271/nogeikagaku1924.59.597

Biosynthesis of PGE2 starting from arachidonate was investigated using a continuous-flow bioreactor with a hollow-fiber membrane of polyacrylonitrile. The merits of this system were that the production line was free of enzyme, PGE2 permeated easily through the membrane whereas arachidonate did not, and that operational factors, such as low substrate concentration, retention time, and methods of adding co-enzyme or co-factor, improved the production yield. This operation resulted in elongation of reaction duration from 20min to almost 100min, but maximum yield decreased to 10%, or only one-third of the maximum yield obtained by batch operation with stirred cells. This indicated that the nature of enzyme stability was not the one influenced by operational factors in the reactor system. Therefore, in the PG synthase system it is necessary to afford methods either to inhibit deactivation of the enzyme by hemoglobin acting as a co-enzyme or to stabilize the enzyme.