HeLa with abnormal morphology - (Jul/02/2013 )

Recently my cultured HeLa has shown some abnormal morphology such as the below images. I'm not sure whether is it yeast contamination because if it is, it should have overgrown my cells. Besides, some of them tend to show extended (elongated) cytoplasm.

how long after subculture did you take the picture?

Curtis on Wed Jul 3 02:15:03 2013 said:

3 days.

I only see dead cells floating, no yeast. Basically your best bet is to throw the cells out and get some fresh ones up - if you don't like how these ones are behaving, would you trust any experimental results you got from them?

If in doubt, throw them out.

bob1 on Wed Jul 3 20:46:33 2013 said:

The rounded cells were actually attaching pretty firmly..

I can't agree more with you about getting fresh ones. However, this morphology change tends to repeat after the first or second subculture (after I start with fresh one). I have not faced such behaviors from the cultured cells for about past few months, this happened only recently.