I dont think the desiccator could help in keeping it sterile. But surely, DMSO absorb moisture from air, so keeping in desiccator (away from light) would help the shelf life of DMSO.

I dont think the desiccator could help in keeping it sterile. But surely, DMSO absorb moisture from air, so keeping in desiccator (away from light) would help the shelf life of DMSO.

For sterility purposes, very little can survive in a bottle of pure DMSO. Understandably, virtually anything can become contaminated with microbes, but unless the contaminated substance contains suitable substrates for life to exist (carbon source, nitrogen sources, amines, etc), nothing will exist long enough to be able to contaminate your cells. Best of Luck.

Desiccator helps only to avoid moisture absorption. DMSO usually absorbs water from the atmosphere, so you should keep it always tightly closed. DMSO itself possesses antimicrobial activity and theoretically bacteria can not survive in it (I totally agree with Craig Silver). But if you want to avoid contamination, you should open DMSO bottle only in the laminar hood or filtrate the medium containing DMSO just before adding it to the cells.

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I guess as long as you use Parafilm in sealing the vessel, very mininal contamination will happen. When I was working in cell culture we were just always reminded to practice aseptic technique to avoid contaminating (expensive) reagents. We never ran into problems.