mycoplasma effects - looking for a reference (Dec/08/2007 )
I'm trying to convince some people who have mycoplasma infected cells that the wisest thing to do would be to throw away their cells and start up a new batch, but I can't seem to find a proper reference which describes the effects of mycoplasma on different pathways in the cell. The only thing I can find is this (http://www.springerlink.com/content/hm875531p2q57l5w/) but I can't access it. Can anybody suggest me an alternative?
Hi,
try http://jcs.biologists.org/cgi/reprint/1/2/145.pdf
Mycoplasmas in Tissue Culture Journal of Cell Science 1966 I. Macpherson
Dear dpo,
Mycoplasma's affect everything to do with cells. It is well documentated in the literature. You must be working with some very stupid people. You will find it almost impossible to publish anything with mycoplasma infected cells...unless the paper is intitled....The effect of Mycoplasma contamination on .....Gene arrays, protein expression, channel expression, induction of enzyme pathways, apoptosis, RNA/DNA synthesis etc etc etc....all these are adversely affected by mycoplasma's.
WHY DO YOU THINK THAT THE ATCC AND ECACC MYCOPLASMA TEST THEIR COMMERCIAL CELL LINES.
WHY DO DRUG COMPANIES MYCOPLASMA TEST ALL THEIR VACCINES, DRUGS ETC.
The stupid people you are working with are obviously bad scientist's as well. In my Institute the infection levels have gone from 35% to ZERO over the past 7 years I have introduced testing.
Kindest regards
Rhombus
@peanutnation: thanks for the reference, I'll check it out
@rhombus: thanks for your support, I couldn't agree more with you, but the problem is some people can be really stubborn on these things. They want to do experiments in a short term and think that starting up a new batch of cells will cost them more time than working with infected cells (which will of course lead to unreliable results) ... ah, youngsters, what can you do about it? 
Its actually some of the older members in my department (thankfully not my lab at least!!) who seem to think that myco is not that big of a problem. I think it has more to do with the person (and their level of laziness) than the age!!
Anyways I found this review a while back which I thought was quite good.
"Mycoplasma contamination of cell cultures: Incidence, sources, effects,detection, elimination, prevention"
Hans G. Drexler & Cord C. Uphoff, 2002
If you have trouble finding it or can't access the full text, let me know and I can email it to you 
fortunately the people I want to convince are not working in my lab either, and I have no personal gain from the results of their experiments, I'm just trying to 'educate' them.
I do find the reference, but I can't access it so I would appreciate it if you could send it to me by PM.
thanks for all the input