I am working with mammalian cell lines, I can see some movements under the microscope, I know about the Brownian motion that can be caused by the cell debris but the question is how to differentiate between the Brownian motion of the cell debris and the Bacterial contamination under microscope, since bacteria have the Brownian motion as well?
Hello Asmaa Nasr
If you observe under the microscope, cell debris being small objects will appear to be moving and floating in water-based solution, interacting with water molecules in a zigzag like motion called the Brownian motion, and will only fidget but mostly stay in the same place.
On the other hand, if you want to check whether the cells are contaminated with bacteria under the microscope, you should look out for non-random directional motion in the cell culture flask. Such directional motion (for example, moving in a straight line or in circle) would then indicate the presence of contamination. In bacterial contamination, you will observe active movement under the microscope where the bacteria move actively (or swim) and they move away from the current position.
So, you can differentiate between cell debris and bacterial contamination under the microscope since bacteria being motile, their movement will be over greater distances and will be multi-directional, not just back and forth as in the case of cell debris.
Best.
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