I am currently culturing cells derived from urine. However, on days 9 and 10 of the culture process, I observed the appearance of numerous cells with unusual morphologies. These cells lack a visible nucleus and appear to develop into flat, star-shaped structures.
I have attached an image for your reference. Could you kindly help me identify what type of cells these might be? Additionally, I would greatly appreciate your advice on the next steps I should take in this study
None of those images look like cells to me. Are you sure those aren't crystals or some other precipitate from your culture?
Hello Lily Nguyen,
Those images don't look like cells to me either. They are some kind of crystals. To get rid of crystals in urine before culturing urine-derived cells, you may use centrifugation. This method separates particles based on density. Crystals are heavier than the cell suspension, so they will settle to the bottom of the tube during centrifugation. Use low-speed centrifugation at a speed (e.g., 100-150g for 5 minutes) to sediment the heavier crystals. Carefully remove the liquid supernatant (the fluid above the pellet) from the centrifuge tube, leaving the pellet behind. This supernatant contains the cells. Centrifuge the supernatant at 500g for 5 minutes to pellet the cells. If desired, you may wash the pellet with a suitable buffer to remove residual supernatant and any remaining crystals. Resuspend the cell pellet in buffer and centrifuge again to collect the washed pellet.
You may want to refer to the article attached below for more information.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5562256/
Best,
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