Cell Culture Contamination

All Cell culture scientists have had a cell culture contamination at some point. It is a right of passage. However, it is important to be able to identify when you have a contamination and what to do about it.

Usually cell culture contaminations are either biological or fungal ( or mycoplasma - see below).

If you do suspect you have a contamination please seek a second opinion and take photographs of your culture if possible.

If a contamination is confirmed you need to complete the cell contamination form and hand to the lab manager and then proceed to deal with the contamination.

Full details and guidance can be found at ….

Mycoplasma Testing

Mycoplasma are the smallest free living organisms and considered to be the simplest of bacteria.They have a lack of cell wall. Mycoplasmas function as parasites in order to survive and therefore exploit their hosts cells to survive.

Mycoplasmas are undetectable to the naked eye and optical microscopy  due to their size meaning they can go undetected for a long time. They are resistant to antibiotics. Mycoplasmas attach to the cell and fuse with the cell membrane .Once inside the cell they multiply.

Contamination with mycoplasma cannot be visualised and it doesn't  produce the turbidity associated  with bacterial and fungal contamination. The morphological changes and changes to growth rate can be minimal.

Mycoplasma compete with the host cells for biosynthetic precursors and nutrients and can alter DNA and RNA and protein synthesis.

Mycoplasma Infections of cell cultures can alter your cells and skew research results which it why it is better to detect an infection sooner rather than later.

Once a mycoplasma infection is detected in a culture it is essential that the lab is locked down to prevent the spread of the infection.

In the CBE we perform mycoplasma testing on cells in culture to check for mycoplasma to ensure the research quality of the material.

Internal

We perform internal mycoplasma testing using a PCR method. This is used for cell lines with minimal provenance ( so they can be released from quarantine) and also for checking cells in culture not behaving as normal and we suspect may be infected.

External 

Every six months we send a random sample of cells in culture ( usually different cell lines and labs each time) to an external company for testing. 

Mycoplasma Experience 

http://www.mycoplasma-exp.com