Does it look like cell clumps/artefact/contamination? - (Oct/10/2008 )

Can anyone tell me whether the black line indicate cell clump, artefact or contamination? I seen alot of these in my flask but there is no sign of cloudiness.

Thanks

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Jash, i dont mean to be smart, but is there any chance it could be condensation on the inside of the flask?

i.e. does it move when you shake the plasticware?

if it does it does it is obviously not condensation.

judging by the size and appearance of the other cells in shot i dont think it is a clump of cells, bacterial contamination would not appear like this so i would rule this out, but i have never seen fungal contamination on cells before and could possibly be this?

are the cells in shot alive?

they do look dead to me as the have an irregular shape and some debris also seems apparent if this is the case it could be fungal contmaination but again i am not positive.

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Yep, it does move when shaking of the flask. Yep, i suspect the cells might be dead. The morphologies are irregular and seem so indifferent to normal cells. I never seen fungal contamination before too. Any ideas, plz help out here...

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Crikey, your cells are in a bad way! What cell line is that?

I suspect that the what you are seeing are cell aggregates of some sort, it doesn't really look like either fungal or bacterial contamination (fungal looks like a fuzzy ball, you are easily able to see the hyphae etc. Yeast look like tiny cells with buds coming off the sides). Try focussing further up or down in the media, it could be that the patches are out of focus things, in which case it could easily be fungus floating on the surface of the medium.

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