So last night our -80 freezer went down and we didn't realize it until the temperature had reached -25 at which point we put everything in another -80. We had stored all our cell lines in there in 10% DMSO and 10% FBS. Is there any chance our cell lines are could have survived?
Not sure. What I have experience is that after prolonged storage in -80oC, it is not recommended to store it in LN2 because most of the cell will be damaged.
I suggest you pick up 2-3 different cell lines and culture them to see how bad the situation is.
My guess is that the majority of the cells will be non-viable after thawing given the significant increase in temperature. Different cell lines may vary in their viability so you might want to take a vial of each cell line and thaw them to access the situation. If all of the cells are floating then it is a lost cause. If you have say 20-30% viability then you probably can rescue the cells by growing them out and making new stocks of them.
Unfortunately I would say no. The only suggestion is to culture them immediately. We had a similar problem a few years ago and only the cell lines we immediately cultured were viable. If you've put them back up to -80 degrees they are dead. They can handle being at -20 for an hr at most, depending on the cell line. Normally its better to store in a higher FBS 30% it buffers them and allows taking the cells out easier.
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