(256a) Optimization of Hyaluronic Acid Production By Streptococcus zooepidemicus for Biomedical Applications

Hyaluronic acid is one of the polymeric materials that has been widely used in biomedical applications. Those include the applications in tissue engineering, dermal filler, and osteoarthritis treatment. Hyaluronic acid is found as the active ingredient in cosmetics and skin protection products. As aforementioned, the market demand of hyaluronic acid tends to increase as the consequence of consumer cares. Nonetheless, the production capacity of hyaluronic acid is still limited since the production from animal tissue extraction usually experiences high risk of contamination while bacterial production often yields the low productivity. To increase the market size of hyaluronic acid, one needs to develop the production process that can provide sufficient amount with the low cost. In this study, medium optimization was conducted for enhancing hyaluronic acid production by Streptococcus zooepidemicus UN-7. Among 4 media studied, the medium containing sucrose and lactic casein gave the highest hyaluronic acid production while the glucose based media gave a better biomass production. Further optimizing the carbon to nitrogen ratio gave improved final product titer. In addition, the agitation exhibited the great effect on hyaluronic acid production. Enhancing the hyaluronic acid production was conducted by the addition of the chemical precursors in the synthesis pathway. It was believed that under the optimized conditions, improved hyaluronic acid could be achieved and the process could be applied as the production platform for a large-scale operation.