[18] Harvesting the products of cell growth

This chapter describes the procedures that are designed to allow the effective purification of cells, subcellular organelles, and components from suspension culture medium. Rapid and efficient harvesting of cultured cells and their products is a major problem associated with biological investigations of cells. By varying the general approach, one should be able to harvest products from the growth of various cell types in suspension culture in volumes of 1–12 liters. When several products are utilized from a given suspension culture it becomes a very economical approach and enhances the possibility of gaining further information on the molecular biology of the cell. The chapter discusses lymphocyte plasma membrane cell surface components, which are utilized as an indication of the efficiency for the procedures described. The fractionation process illustrated in a table results in a 45% yield of plasma membrane as judged by analyzing the Thy-1 differentiation alloantigen, a T-lymphocyte cell surface marker; purification is almost 10-fold.the chapter also discusses the acquisition of components from the culture medium.