Microbial and Viral Contamination of Animal and Stem Cell Cultures: Common Contaminants, Detection and Elimination

Abstract

The microbial contamination of animal cell culture, including stem cells, such as the blood stem cells, is a common problem of cell culture laboratories. It is important to identify the types of microorganisms commonly contaminating the cell culture and the sources of contaminating microorganisms, as well as see their effects on cells in culture. This mini review provides a short account of common microbial contaminations of stem cell and animal cell cultures, their detection and elimination, as well as standard practices to ensure a healthy and sterile cell culture, and a brief account of methods used for identification of contaminating microorganisms in cell culture. spoil a culture medium. Keywords7 Residues from germicides used to disinfect incubators, equipments and labs, and impurities in gases used in CO 2 incubators have also been found to affect cell culture.8 However, the major source of microbial contamination is documented to arise by contact with non-sterile supplies, media and solution, chemicals and equipments, and by the particulate matter and aerosols that fall out during transportation and incubation.9 According to a study, 1960-70, the new born bovine serum obtained from commercial suppliers was found to be a major source of bacterial, particularly the mycoplasma, contamination. 10One of the most common contaminants, and also difficult to detect, that has been reported in literature is Mycoplasma contamination. 11Mycoplasma is an intracellular bacterium that may go unnoticed for many passages. Its presence can change several cell properties such as the growth, metabolism, morphology, and genome structure. In literature, the incidences of Mycoplasma contamination have been reported over a period of time since 1956. 12 The incidence of Mycoplasma contamination was 19%, as compared with fungal (8%) and other bacterial (4%) contaminations. The contamination is reported to spread through airborne particles and non-sterile surfaces mainly. 13 In a study on fibroblasts and keratinocyte cell lines, 32.35% cultures were contaminated, and among these, the mycoplasma contaminated cultures were 17.65%, followed by fungal (8.82%) and bacterial (5.88%) contaminants.14 Aspergillus tops the list of fungal contamination of cell cultures. 15M. orale is reported to be the most common contamination that can spread from human oral cavity, and hence making the lab workers a major source of this contamination.10 Bacterial species (Bacillus sp., Enterococcus sp. and Staphylococcus sp) are similarly some major contaminants of animal cell cultures.9 A list of common microbial species and their major sources that have been reported to contaminate animal/stem cell culture is provided in Table 1 & 2, respectively.

A reassessment of DNA-immunoprecipitation-based genomic profiling

“…Although Centrifuge utilizes similar indexing algorithms as Bowtie2, it far outperforms it for microbial classification 55 . A custom Centrifuge index was built from available complete RefSeq genomes of common cell culture contaminants 56–58 , including bacteria, virus and fungi, together with the mouse genome (mm9). The 324 different assemblies included are available in Supplementary Table 4.…”

Physiobiochemical and microbiologic stability characteristics of freeze-dried cartilage secretome Adipose Mesenchymal Stem Cell (AdMSC)

“…Contamination in research can jeopardize the quality of research and affect the results that interfere with conclusions. In contrast, when applied to products, contamination can affect normal cell growth, causing cell death within a few days after contamination (Ali, 2017).…”

Efficiency of Microalgae Cultivation Automated System: A Case Study of Green Algae Chlorella ellipsoidea TISTR 8260

“…Moreover, incubators that can control other factors, such as humidity and contamination from external microorganisms, are being developed. Such automated incubators could produce high-quality microalgae and harvest it at appropriate times throughout the year by operating through various control cabinets, facilitating the uninterrupted growth of the microalgae value chain, and creating a continuous circular economy (Mahmood & Ali, 2017;Prabakarana et al, 2018). Therefore, this study aimed to build an innovative automated closed-system algae incubator that could control the environment by adjusting the temperature and light intensity and influence the growth of Chlorella sp.…”