I have been cultivating these HEK293 cells in DMEM; 10% FBS; Qlutamin; penicillin-streptomycin solution. The cells are growing nicely and are good-looking but today I spotted this clump in their media.
So, is there some kind of bacteria contamination starting to grow or is it just a cell aggregate of HEK293s?
I attached X4 and X20 magnification of the plate below.
4/10/25
Dear Beda,
It's difficult to tell if you have contamination from the attached photos, as the magnification is too low. Is the clump getting larger with time? If so, that would be a good indication that you have a contamination problem. It's possible that you have a fungal colonly in the plate. Try preparing a wet mount of material taken from the clump with an inoculating loop and check with the microscope. If you have contamination (fungi or bacteria), you should be able to visualize it at 100-400x magnification. If so, you will have to sub-culture your cells in fresh media.
I hope this information helps you.
Bill Colnna
Dept. Food Science & Human Nutrition, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, USA [email protected]
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