Studies on low-cost disposable bioreactor for bilirubin detoxification

The present work deals with the design, fabrication and performance of a bioreactor for detoxification of bilirubin in plasma. The developed bioreactor uses a packed column of calcium alginate beads immobilized with bilirubin oxidase enzyme. It is simple, easy to fabricate, disposable, economical and autoclavable, thus portable. Experimental studies show the 30% conversion of Bilirubin into biliverdin, by using the present reactor. The results also show that the percentage conversion increases with increase in the amount of enzyme entrapped in beads, and in the case of bilirubin-bovine serum albumin (BSA) mixture, it increases with increase in bilirubin concentration