Has anyone seen this kind of contamination before? These are MDAMB231 cells. Help
I'm afraid that it is a bacteria contamination. Did you check if media has changed colour and smell?
Definetly bacterial contamination. You can try severe washout (several times with buffer), eventually serum free media for couples of hours or treatment with antibiotics.
I would not try to rescue them - if possible, defrost new ones.
You might change the (cancer(!)) cells, so don't risk it.
The color of the Media didn't change. However the rest of my plates all got the same contamination after a few days. I thought that if it was bacterial contamination, the media would change to a cloudy color. Also my plate had antibiotics added before the contamination
You don't always see the contamination in the media, especially if you keep it at 4°C. Still, I think if you added antibiotics your cells should be fine..maybe try a higher concentration next time?
Anyway I would defrost new cells and use new media and washing buffer.
Make sure all of your buffers, media and instruments (pipette dispenser, etc.) are sterile. You can quite easily test the media and buffers by leaving an aliquot in the incubator for a couple of days. As others suggested already, get a new batch of cells from storage. It is not a good idea trying to save them.
Good luck!
Unless the cells are rare or unavailable they should be discarded and you can start from new stock. Decontamination is often time consuming and difficult. You can also end up contaminating your incubater and any other cells you may have growing there.
MB231 is not a rare cell line, discard it and get a new one. What is more important, make sure that your stock is not contaminated.
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