recently obtained a cell lines from ATCC, directly thaw and plated in DMEM+10%FBS, 5 days later both were contaminated, probably by fungi, in both flasks, medium was good because other cell lines grew very well in the same medium from the exact same bottle, even without antibiotics.
The same thing happened last year, seems ATCC is going down and takes no care about their quality, anyone has the same experience?
We have had a few problems here with ATCC cell lines that were contaminated. I have had good results with them in the past, but the rate of contaminated cultures seems to have accelerated in the last 30 years. I don't know that ATCC is doing anything different, but we may be selecting for contaminants that are more difficult to control in lab or the number of users of this source may have reached a point where you are going to be more likely to get the "off" culture. Whatever the problem, I agree that it is concerning.
in fact > 10% of all cell line collections are contaminated by micoplasma and ATCC is not an exclusion(( The best way to prove them their fault is to invite companie's represantative to the every 1st manipulation with vial upon its shipping to you and take an aliquot for micoplasma test befor seeding.
I have had a similar experience with cell lines obtained from ATCC. I agree with the suggestion made by Andrey Bavykin. Such an approach may give ATCC a wakeup call to introduce an stringent QC of their cell lines, prior to their shipment to end users.
Update:
contacted ATCC, received a replacement, with a lengthy instruction of how to do cell culture, cells were good this time, healthy and strong. clearly they sent me a contaminated vial last time. Hope they would implant some quality control procedure once they send out goods.
yeah not I am facing the same problem. I purchased a cell line recently and thawed it in the standard way. But today when I check the cell there was fungal-like contamination on the flask. So could you please tell me how you contact ATCC? Like what kind of information I should tell the company to get a new vial of cell?
Many thanks.
This just happened to me with a cell line I've worked with on and off for 7 years. Ordered a fresh vial and 4 days later was contaminated. ATCC told me their warranty doesn't cover contamination so I cannot get a free replacement. Has anyone been told that before? Any suggestions?
Andy Deng I contacted them, they sent me a form and also later one asked a bunch of questions, all of them are trying to blame my faults. and they came to a final solution that I needed to buy again, that was it. I do not no much trust on them now, if there is alternative provider, go for it.
We think we also have a contamination in two cell lines From ATCC. Would people be willing to share which cell lines they used? We also found a suspected infection in an antibiotic, so we were actively infecting our cultures in our concern to protect them!
This just happened to me with a primary cell line. They have given me a discount on the re-order and say they will check the rest of the lot. I wonder, if they find that the lot is actually contaminated like I suspect (no other issues with the other 4 cell lines that I maintain), will they even admit it or simply pull the rest of the stock?
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