What should I do if mycoplasma contamination occurs in the cell factory?

Mycoplasma contamination is a frequently encountered problem in basic research and industrial production. When using cell factories for cell culture or large-scale industrial production, mycoplasma contamination is also very troublesome. So, what to do in this situation?

Mycoplasma is a microorganism whose size is between bacteria and virus (minimum diameter 0.2um) and lives independently. After mycoplasma contaminates cells, the culture medium may not become cloudy. It is relieved by passage and medium exchange, so it is easy to be ignored. But some serious cases can cause slow cell proliferation and even fall off from the cell factory.

If mycoplasma contamination occurs, for non-important cells, such as cells in culture, cells of WCB, etc., the culture and the used medium can be inactivated and discarded. For more important cells, MRA treatment, drug-assisted warming treatment, use of mycoplasma-specific serum, inoculation and sterilization in animals, macrophage phagocytosis, and use of mycoplasma-clearing medium can be used for treatment.

The prevention of mycoplasma contamination is the key in the use of cell factories for cell culture work. The probability of mycoplasma contamination can be reduced by controlling environmental pollution, strict experimental operation, ensuring sterility of cell culture medium and equipment, and adding appropriate amount of antibiotics to cell culture medium.