I've been researching various antibiotics and their uses from gentamycin (which is used in my cell culture media) to Penicillin and streptomycin. But I'm also wondering, if those cheap off the counter triple antibiotic ointment could also do the same job and not harm human cells- say leukemia cells. Triple antibiotic ointment contains polymyxin, neomycin, and bacitracin. From what I've read online, neomycin might be toxic to human cells unless they have a resistance gene. Polymyxin seems ok.
I found this pdf that uses neomycin and bacitracinto decontaminate a contaminated cell culture. https://www.goldbio.com/documents/1086/Antibiotic+Treatment+of+Contaminated+Cell+Culture.pdf
I assume the pdf refers to bacterial/fungi contamination of a human cell culture so if you're washing your human cells in antibiotics that harm human cells, then that defeats the point of this article right?
Has anyone tested these antibiotics on any human cells?
Well, all antibiotics will be toxic to cells in culture if used at high enough concentration, even in the presence of resistance gene! You will have to try but I don't see why it should not work as long as you make your killing curve properly and are able to sterilize the antibiotics mix in the first place. Also, why don't you consider growing your cells without antibiotics - I always dis this - for stable lines and for primary lines - no issues with contamination!
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