Stringy rapidly growing contaminants in primary culture - (Jul/07/2014 )

Ahyi on Wed Jul 9 04:29:28 2014 said:

 

bob1 on Tue Jul 8 08:11:04 2014 said:

I agree with SusieQ, probably not a living contaminant

 

They look like plastic fibers from the tissue culture vessels.  If they are fungi (they certainly aren't yeast of bactria), then they should actively grow to form fluffy colonies over a number of days.

 

Culture the medium alone and in the presence of some cells you can afford to waste (if it is fungus).

Hi bob1,

I agree. They appeared in culture of medium alone and in another batch of cells.

 

Appreciate the help on here! Thanks.

 

The important thing here is - do they increase in number or size of the threads over time.  If not, then it isn't contamination.

bob1 on Wed Jul 9 21:46:42 2014 said:

 

Ahyi on Wed Jul 9 04:29:28 2014 said:

 

bob1 on Tue Jul 8 08:11:04 2014 said:

I agree with SusieQ, probably not a living contaminant

 

They look like plastic fibers from the tissue culture vessels.  If they are fungi (they certainly aren't yeast of bactria), then they should actively grow to form fluffy colonies over a number of days.

 

Culture the medium alone and in the presence of some cells you can afford to waste (if it is fungus).

Hi bob1,

I agree. They appeared in culture of medium alone and in another batch of cells.

 

Appreciate the help on here! Thanks.

 

The important thing here is - do they increase in number or size of the threads over time.  If not, then it isn't contamination.

 

After overnight culture I can say the length increased but not number  (?could be my subjective view though), I had to stop the culture for colleagues to clean out incubator to avoid cross contamination.

Ahyi on Thu Jul 10 05:15:33 2014 said:

 

bob1 on Wed Jul 9 21:46:42 2014 said:

 

Ahyi on Wed Jul 9 04:29:28 2014 said:

 

bob1 on Tue Jul 8 08:11:04 2014 said:

I agree with SusieQ, probably not a living contaminant

 

They look like plastic fibers from the tissue culture vessels.  If they are fungi (they certainly aren't yeast of bactria), then they should actively grow to form fluffy colonies over a number of days.

 

Culture the medium alone and in the presence of some cells you can afford to waste (if it is fungus).

Hi bob1,

I agree. They appeared in culture of medium alone and in another batch of cells.

 

Appreciate the help on here! Thanks.

 

The important thing here is - do they increase in number or size of the threads over time.  If not, then it isn't contamination.

 

After overnight culture I can say the length increased but not number  (?could be my subjective view though), I had to stop the culture for colleagues to clean out incubator to avoid cross contamination.

 

Hi bob1,

After 72h culture there was no increase in length or size. So it isn't contamination. My guess is fibres (plastic or the tissue for wipe down maybe)

Thanks!

Hi All,

I am having the same problem with fibroblast cell culture. Below is an image of the stringy material I am seeing only very recently. Could this be protein aggregation due to improper FBS thaw, or possibly residual trypsin from detachment step in passaging? I would be grateful if people could shed a bit of light on this.

Elaine

Looks like a plastic fibre or two to me.

These stringy substances are all over the flask (not just a couple). Their length was as long as the image above but there was some that were very short as well. Also they were seen in different flasks with different cell trains.