change in cell morphology in culture - cell culture (Oct/27/2005 )

I am trying to grow MG-63 cell line.
I am using 10% non-heat inactivated serum, with the usual supplement of antibiotics and L-glutamate in DMEM. The cells seem to be doing well at the beginning, showing polygonal morphology, but then they begin to elongate and become more polarised with a small cell body, as they reach confluency.

Some floating cells are visible, even after several medium changes. Also, there are small dark particles floating in the medium (their size about 0.1-0.3um approximately). some long fimalments are visible, not asscoiated with any cells. The medium looks clear (no turbidity), and there is no apparent change in the pH either (so it is unlikely to be a bacterials infection). Any suggestions as what might be the problem.

Has anyone worked with these cell lines and could there be a problem with the use of non-heat inctivated serum.

I had changes to the MG-63 after a while as well. Turns out they were inflected with mycoplasms, but I'm not sure if that's what caused the morphology change or if it would have happened anyway after prolonged passaging.

filaments not associated with your cells are typical of yeast growth; have you tried culturing some supernatant?

and mycoplasma contamination characteristically causes morphological changes


goog luck