Hi all,
We've recently noticed some small bits of black debris floating in some of our cell cultures. As they have popped up in a few different cultures one by one, we've assumed this is a fungal contamination and thrown everything out.
I was wondering if anyone has seen similar things in the past and could perhaps let me know what these bits of debris look like and how to best avoid them in the future?
Cheers
Hi Zac,
That looks like dislodged, probably dead cells. Just change the media, if your cells aren't sensitive give 'em a wash with DPBS 1X, and replace with media. I'm saying this because your cultures are really confluent, nearly ~80-90% in places. You need to passage them before they all bail on you mate.
Hi Zac,
It does not look like a contamination, but rather like detached cells from the growth surface. Your cells could detach because the sub-cultivation ratio is wrong or because they do not like the plastic dish you use to maintain the culture. There could be many reasons, apart of the two mentioned ones: temperature in the incubator, CO2 conditions, etc.
Make sure you split your cells regularly to prevent the overgrowth of the culture.
Also, make sure that you grow cells on an adequate surface, plastic dish, etc.
If the same thing happened with other cultures, as you mention, check if your incubator works properly and maintains the necessary conditions for the cell growth.
Best
Mirza Muhammad Fahd Qadir , Milica Bozic Stanojevic , Karima Galal Abdel hameed , Thanks all for your answers. I was a little sceptical this was a fungal contamination at first but within a few days it became clear it was more than cells becoming dislodged, a few cultures had floating white debris visible to the eye and the media became very turbid.
We've since thrown away and decontaminated everything as well as checked the settings and reset the incubator as per Milica's suggestion. Cells are fine now. Thanks for the advice!
Hi Zac,
Great to here your cells are fine now! You are welcome!
Best of luck in your future work.
Milica
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