Concentrating device and method for concentrating cell suspension

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10793822-B2
Application number	US-201615574530-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 24, 2016
Priority date	May 25, 2015
Publication date	Oct 6, 2020
Grant date	Oct 6, 2020

Abstract

A means capable of simply and efficiently concentrating a cell suspension. A concentrator has a culture vessel having a first port and a second port, a server bag having a port, a case having a hollow fiber bundle in the internal space, a filtering device having an inlet port, a first outlet port, and a second outlet port, a collection vessel having a port, a liquid supply circuit connected to the first port, the inlet port, and the server bag's port so that flow passages are switchable, a liquid discharge circuit connected to the second port, the first outlet port, the second outlet port, and the collection vessel's port so that flow passages are switchable, a liquid supply mechanism having a switching mechanism, a supply pump, and a discharge pump, and a rotation mechanism rotating the filtering device.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A concentrator comprising:
a filtering device having a case provided with a filtration membrane in an internal space, an inflow port and a first outflow port bringing an inside of the filtration membrane and an outside of the case into communication with each other, and a second outflow port bringing an outside of the filtration membrane and an outside into communication with each other;
a liquid supply circuit connected to the inflow port;
a liquid discharge circuit connected to the first outflow port and the second outflow port;
a shaft that is rotatable and to which the filtering device is mechanically linked to rotate with the shaft so that positions in a vertical direction of the inflow port and the first outflow port change during rotation of the shaft;
a first rotation mechanism which actuates rotation of the shaft; and
a control portion configured to store a program, accept data input, and display output, the control portion configured to control operation of the first rotation mechanism so as to rotate the filtering device to a first orientation in which the inflow port is vertically higher than the first outlet port for a first operation of the filtering device including filtering cells of a cell suspension and a second orientation in which the inflow port is vertically lower than the first outlet port for a second operation of the filtering device.

2. The concentrator according to claim 1 further comprising:
a culture vessel having a first port and a second port bringing an internal space and an outside into communication with each other;
a first reservoir having a third port bringing an internal space and the outside into communication with each other;
a collection vessel having a fourth port bringing an internal space and the outside into communication with each other; and
a liquid supply/discharge mechanism having a switching mechanism switching flow passages in the liquid supply circuit and the liquid discharge circuit, a first pump circulating a liquid in the liquid supply circuit, and a second pump circulating a fluid in the liquid discharge circuit, wherein
the liquid supply circuit is connected to the first port, the inflow port, and the third port so that the flow passages are switchable, and
the liquid discharge circuit is connected to the second port, the first outflow port, the second outflow port, and the fourth port so that the flow passages are switchable.

3. The concentrator according to claim 2 further comprising:
a second rotation mechanism that is coupled to the culture vessel and wherein the control portion is further configured to control operation of the second rotation mechanism so as to rotate the culture vessel so that positions in a vertical direction of the first port and the second port are changeable.

4. The concentrator according to claim 2 , wherein the culture vessel is mechanically coupled to the shaft so that the shaft integrally rotates the culture vessel and the filtering device; and
wherein the control portion is further configured to control rotation of the culture vessel so that the positions in the vertical direction of the first port and the second port are changeable.

5. The concentrator according to claim 2 , further comprising:
a second reservoir having a fifth port bringing an internal space and the outside into communication with each other and capable of reserving a priming liquid in the internal space; and
a third reservoir having a sixth port bringing an internal space and the outside into communication with each other and capable of reserving a culture medium in the internal space; and wherein
the control portion controls an operation of the liquid supply/discharge mechanism and the first rotation mechanism, wherein
the liquid supply circuit is connected to the fifth port and the sixth port so that flow passages are switchable, and
the control portion executes
a moving step of bringing the second port and the third port into communication with each other by the liquid supply/discharge mechanism, and then driving the first pump to thereby move the cell suspension to the first reservoir from the culture vessel,
a priming step of rotating the filtering device with the first rotation mechanism and shaft into a first state in which the inflow port is located downward relative to the first outflow port, bringing the fifth port and the inflow port into communication with each other by the liquid supply/discharge mechanism and opening the inflow port, and then driving at least the first pump to thereby supply the priming liquid to the filtering device from the second reservoir,
a filtering step of rotating the filtering device with the first rotation mechanism and shaft into a second state in which the inflow port is located upward relative to the first outflow port by the first rotation mechanism, bringing the third port and the inflow port into communication with each other by the liquid supply/discharge mechanism, closing the first outflow port and opening the second outflow port, and then driving at least the first pump to thereby supply the cell suspension to the filtering device from the first reservoir, and
a collecting step of bringing the sixth port and the inflow port into communication with each other by the liquid supply/discharge mechanism, closing the second outflow port and bringing the first outflow port and the fourth port into communication with each other, and then driving at least the first pump to thereby supply the cell suspension to the collection vessel from the filtering device.

6. The concentrator according to claim 5 , wherein
the control portion rotates the culture vessel with the first rotation mechanism and shaft into a third state in which the first port is located downward relative to the second port in the moving step.

7. The concentrator according to claim 2 , wherein
the culture vessel has a bag shape in which an internal space is formed with a flexible sheet.

8. The concentrator according to claim 7 , wherein
an inner surface demarcating the internal space in the culture bag has cell adhesiveness suitable for culturing adhesive cells.

9. The concentrator according to claim 1 , wherein
the filtration membrane contains hollow fibers.

10. The concentrator according to claim 2 wherein
the first pump and the second pump are tube pumps.

11. A method for concentrating a cell suspension using
a switching mechanism of switching flow passages in a liquid supply circuit connected to a first port bringing an internal space of a culture vessel and an outside into communication with each other, an inflow port bringing an inside of a filtration membrane of a filtering device having a case provided with the filtration membrane in an internal space and an outside of the case into communication with each other, a third port bringing an internal space of a first reservoir and the outside into communication with each other, a fifth port bringing an internal space of a second reservoir capable of reserving a priming liquid in the internal space and the outside into communication with each other, and a sixth port bringing an internal space of a third reservoir capable of reserving a culture medium in the internal space and the outside into communication with each other so that the flow passages are switchable, and to switch flow passages in a liquid discharge circuit connected to a second port bringing the internal space of the culture vessel and the outside into communication with each other, a first outflow port bringing the inside of the filtration membrane of the filtering device and the outside of the case into communication with each other, a second outflow por

Assignees

• Nipro Corp
• Sasayama Norihisa
• Takeuchi Masakatsu
• Taguchi Atsushi

Inventors

• Sasayama Norihisa
• Takeuchi Masakatsu
• Taguchi Atsushi

Classifications

• B01D61/243

  Dialysis · CPC title

• B01D63/02

  Hollow fibre modules · CPC title

• C12M3/065

  with hollow fibres or tubes · CPC title

• C12M3/06

  with filtration, ultrafiltration, inverse osmosis or dialysis means · CPC title

• C12M3/043

  rotatably mounted · CPC title