CHO cell line - To use or not to use - - incubator ran out of CO2 (Oct/06/2009 )

HI,

Just wondering if someone would be able to give me their opinion;

I am doing a protein localization project and i am using HEK-293 cells and CHO cells. The incubator ran out of CO2 on monday.... we thought for about an hour.. but today i had a look at my HEK-293s and they are well and truely cactus (poor cell morphology/ detachment).

My CHO cell line looks semi-ok.. but again with some detachment and a little bit of poor cell morphology. We have used HEKs in our lab for years.. but only just started working with the CHO cell line. Do you think it would be valid/ a good idea to use these CHO cells (for microscopy and western blot) or am i better off to start fresh?

- Thanks

If you have frozen aliquots, I'd thaw one and start over. You never know what sort of lasting effects that may have, since you basically selected for a population that could survive. That said, if it really was only an hour, and the internal CO2 concentration of the incubator didn't drop too far, you're probably OK.