Contamination on a cell culture

[A.B.C]

This is a picture of the contamination that it appear in my cells last week. I don't know how to get rid of it and i have no idea of what it is. Can anyone help me? i really need to get this cells good as soon as possible to start an important experiment and all the ones we have are contaminated with this thing.

[Nicholas Kang]

Consult a qualified medical officer or medication source would be (I think) a quadrillion times better than asking for identification in this forum. Why you don`t want to send it to biological labs around your residental area, maybe experts there can provide you an even detailed report.

 

ps. I ignore the fact that you are a biologist in this context. But if you are a biologist, then you may share this problem with members in this forum, but the actual sample, in my opinion, is always the best evidence. So, double checking the actual sample would be the best way instead of posting the picture in this forum. (Just my suggestion )

Edited July 25, 2014 by Nicholas Kang

[CharonY]

I would need higher magnification, but it could be yeast contamination (though the shape is a bit odd). Maybe also high aggregates of bacteria. Is the medium cloudy? Unfortunately this typically means that may be screwed as contaminated cultures are often hellishly difficult to purify. Normally you would decontaminate your workplace/incubation chamber etc. and reinitialize the culture. Even if separation is successful, your culture is compromised due to contact and exposure to endotoxins, so that you cannot trust any results you get from the otherwise.

There are some people who will suggest things like e.g. antibiotics rinsing. But again, you will get compromised results with low reproducibility.

[A.B.C]

Thank you for your answer! This thing got much bigger during the weekend. The problem is that we don't have more cells from this cell line and it's not easy to get. We already had problem with them a few months ago because they stopped working and starting dieing and now that they were getting fine again this thing appear and we really don't know what it is and how to get rid of it.

[Nicholas Kang]

Sorry for not being alert before replying, A.B.C.

[Wrynn]

ABC Did you manage to "cure" the cells or at least identify what was wrong?