Dear community,
We found contaminations in various batches FBS from one supplier/manufacturer. Different working groups with very different cells and conditions found bacteria in fresh thawed bottles (manufactured in July, 2020, all the time frozen and sealed until aliquot).
The bacteria are not so obviously (not like e.coli: today contaminated, tomorrow the medium is clowdy). They take more time to grow. In the normal "splitting-routine", like two times per week they had an effect on the cells but under the microscope they were hard to find. We first suspected there was a problem in the late summer, when the cells didn´t want to grow as properly as normal.
Does anyone also has inexplicable problems with the cellculture since summer or earlier?
Hi Ninon,
Our lab has recently identified issues with contamination that are very similar to what you describe. In trying to trace the source, we are suspicious that it could be our FBS. The contamination is very slow growing - it takes ~5 days to show up when pure FBS is placed in the incubator. Out of curiosity, would you mind sharing which vendor your FBS was from? I believe ours was also coming from a lot that was produced around the same time as yours. Thanks, Lauren
Hi Lauren
we received our FBS from Gibco, which is actually Thermo Fisher, I think. (like nearly everything for a lab today is from Thermo, so they can do whatever they want, because there´s no competitor!)
This is copied from our order (date: May 2020)
Gibco™
HI FBS (500 mL)
# 16140-071
Greets, Ninon
Thanks Ninon - so frustrating. Ours is also from Gibco, ordered around the same time - although it is a different product number because we use Canadian origin. Were you able to resolve your issues or did you just switch to a different FBS lot? Thanks, Lauren
Hi Lauren
We had the same Problems with other samples, too. My colleague tried various numbers of different FBS, nearly all of Thermo - contaminated. I´m glad my primary Cells don´t require FBS and the other work stopped because of missing staff, so we don´t know how to continue next year. She also tried, of course, sterile filtration, but the contamination came back. Just like you say: it takes a time, up to weeks, to see it actually.
Did you order different batches or from another supplier? we also thought about synthetic FBS, but the costs are so high and the additional work to establish it...
Best, Ninon
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