Development of cell culture monitoring system and novel non-contact pH measurement

This paper describes a cell culture monitoring system for regenerative medicine. To realize this monitoring system, a new culture vessel and a removable measurement unit were proposed. The measurement unit was installed in the culture vessel and it was used to measure important cell culture parameters (e.g., temperature, CO
2
level, and pH). Thus, the status of the culture could be monitored. In addition, we developed a novel noninvasive method based on spectrophotometry for measuring pH. This method is a non-contact method that permits noninvasive and contamination-free pH measurement. The spectroscopic pH measurements agreed well with pH measurements using an electrode. The error was within 0.02; thus, the new pH measurement method is sufficiently accurate for cell culture. This new system is expected to contribute to advances in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine.