Cell Line Mycoplasma screening

Surrey Diagnostics provides a PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) screening service to detect any mycoplasma contamination that may be present in your cell lines.
Microbiological Methods 39 121-126

Mycoplasma

Members of the genus ‘Mycoplasma’ are the smallest organisms without cell walls capable of self-replication. They can cause various different diseases in humans, animals, insects, and plants. In cell culture lines mycoplasma contamination can be a serious issue because of its potential to cause adverse effects on cellular metabolism.

Contamination by Mycoplasmas and Acholeplasmas (Mollicutes) is one of the most frequently occurring problems associated with cell cultures and by affecting many different biological aspects of the infected culture, leads to unreliable experimental results and potentially harmful biological products derived from the cells.

Routine testing for Mycoplasma and Acholeplasma contamination is therefore essential to ensure reliable research results.

Several surveys have shown that 15 to 80% of cell cultures tested were contaminated with mollicutes, but typically this is not always easily detected as it produces neither turbidity in the culture (an easily observed effect of bacterial contamination) or the cytopathic effects often seen with viral contamination 1.

Surrey Diagnostics can screen for all species of cell culture contaminating Mycoplasmas.

The processes used by Surrey Diagnostics yield an extremely high level of sensitivity and accuracy, giving you consistently high quality results.

A secondary method of confirmation is also available through our capability to culture samples within our own laboratories, should you require it.

1 reference
J. Tang, M. Hu, S. Lee, R.Roblin (2000)
A polymerase chain reaction based method for detecting Mycoplasma / Acholeplasms contaminants in cell culture.