Anyone knows what kind of contamination is this? - (Dec/27/2007 )

Hi Guys,

I was doing fibroblast isolation using the explant method and the next day i found these worm-like structures wriggling around in my petri dishes. Does anyone have any first hand experience on what these 'things' are and what kinda antibiotics would be gd in getting rid of them?

Regards,
James

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Hi James,

Looks like strings of bacteria to me, pen/strep in the media would stop bacterial contamination,

P

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Thanks Penguin. Do you happen to know what kind of bacteria is this?

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Hi,
Can't really tell at this magnification but they look spherical and so are probably coccus rather than bacillus. I used to see these from time to time when I didn't use antibiotics (and had not used good sterile technique)

P

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most likely some streptococcus sp from your skin. doesn't matter though - contamination is always bad, the species is generally irrelevant

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Dear blitzzz,

Think about all those genes being expressed in the cells, as a self protection mechanism. Then think about CLONAL SELECTION i.e. selection of a sub set of fibroblast's that can survive this insult. Then think about publishing in Journals...." the cells were first contaminated by an unknown bacterium, cleaned up and then used". No one will publish this kind of data.

The old cell culture adage must be applied:

"If in doubt, CHUCK IT OUT".

Regards

Rhombus

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