I am in the process of setting up a new undergraduate lab and I am looking at CO2 cell culture incubators.
Several companies have offered copper-lined incubators as they claim it reduces culture infections. However, having read around I am not convinced. Some researchers think copper-lined incubators are great, others think they are a gimmick.
Has anyone on here used copper-lined incubators? Are they any good? Do they work? Or is it a gimmick?
When I was moving our human embryo lab to a new room we had the opportunity to purchase some copper-lined incubators and decided against it mainly because of the cost. Whereas there is some anti-microbial benefit there is nothing which compares with proper training in aseptic technique and following the manufacturer's instructions which come with the incubator. In the 20 years, give or take, we had never had an infection within any of our incubators and they were not copper-lined.
I would go with the traditional CO2 incubator. The contamination issues are, IMHO, going to mainly arise from improper techniques in the hood. If everything is done correctly, it would be very hard for 1 contaminated dish to spread to other dishes. Copper incubators are mostly a gimmick. Also they will oxidze and look green (mostly for looks). So unless you are growing your cells directly on the shelves, it is not worth the extra cost. The only copper item in you incubator should be the water pan.
As for techniques, before the advent of laminar hoods, they used to do cell culturing in an aseptic box (no high tech flow etc...)
Here's a short video excerpt of Sukhi Uppal interview talking about specialized incubators....http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20ycnC56G-k -- I can put you in touch with him if you like... You can watch the complete interview at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IesqxH...View product information at http://thermoscientific.com/CO2
I am in the process of buying an Co2 incubator, any suggestion on which make to buy??
We have 4 stainless and 2 copper incubators (Hera) in our lab. We get occasional contamination in the stainless units (particularly fungal growth) and we never have this problem with the copper lined incubators. We also don't use antibiotics in our cultures (mostly human stem cells) so this is really putting this to the test.
I'd also point out that a major source of contamination has been the water bath which I'm sure many will agree can become pretty nasty if not frequently cleaned. So in addition to getting a copper incubator I would also suggest using lab armor beads. They work great and will eliminate the water bath as one source of contamination.
I use a a foot of 18 gauge bare copper wire balled/twisted up and stuffed into a 5 or 15 mL conical tube with several small holes drilled in it...this allows for contact with the water, while preventing direct metal-to-metal contact between the copper and stainless steel which could cause galvanic corrosion.
I've found that this copper metal method prevents microbial growth in water baths of incubators and rotovaps without the need for copper sulfate or commercial products. Also, its best to use DI water in the water bath, as its a slightly more aggressive solvent than plain old tap water...in theory this helps ensure a higher level of dissolved copper ions in solution.
For a more aggressive water-bath biocide, I would recommend 0.05-0.1% benzalkonium chloride...its a (relatively) cheap, stable and non-volatile broad-spectrum biocide of the quaternary ammonium ("quats") family...aka the stuff in Lysol other than ethanol...downside is that its toxic if consumed and possibly a persistent environmental pollutant, but don't quote me on that last bit.
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