During a training class of cell culture, my partner and I used non-sterile pipettes during a subculture by error, so we believe that our medium could be contaminated. What are some solutions to this problem? Thank you!
Hello Gabriel O. Rivas-Hernández
You could perform a simple test. If you suspect contamination of the culture medium and cannot decide for sure, you can always check for bacterial contamination. Streak a few micro litres of culture medium suspected of being contaminated on LB agar plate, and leave the plate at 37 degree C overnight. If you find bacterial colonies on the plate the next day, then surely the culture medium is contaminated.
Best.
I agree with Malcolm Nobre. Or If you don't have LB agar plate, you can incubate your DMEM in incubator for 24 or 48 h and then observe it under microscope. You also can filter the media by using 0.22 μm pore filter.
if you already added PS in DMEM, hopefully it can be protected from bacteria contamination. however, the yeast , the fungus and mycoplasma are difficult to handle. it is more likely to discard this contaminated DMEM. one of my suggestions is that you can aliquot media into 50 mL falcon tube and let it be kept well in cold room.
Thank you all, I appreciate your answers and tips. My partner and I decided to filter the DMEM as Maria mentioned, also we did a microbiological control to be sure as Malcolm recommended me. The medium was clean, so we were able to use it in our experiments!
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