Cause Analysis of Mycoplasma Contamination in Cell Factory

 Mycoplasma contamination of cells is a very troublesome problem when culturing cells, especially in the use of large-scale culture vessels such as cell factory. Once mycoplasma contamination occurs, the loss will be even greater. So, what is the cause of mycoplasma contamination?

Mycoplasma is a prokaryotic organism with a size of only 0.2-0.3 um, no cell wall, and can pass through a general filter membrane (0.22-0.45 um). During cell culture, the incidence of mycoplasma infection reaches 63%, so during cell culture Contamination by mycoplasma is a worldwide problem. When cells (especially passage cells) are contaminated by mycoplasma, the expression of DNA, RNA and protein in the cells will change, but the growth rate of cells generally does not have a significant impact, so the contamination of cells by mycoplasma is generally difficult to detect. In most cases, the cytopathic changes are slight or insignificant, and subtle changes can also be alleviated by subculture and medium replacement, so they are easily overlooked. However, in severe cases, the cells may proliferate slowly and even fall off from the cell factory.

            FuDau 10-Layers-Cell-Factory-TC-Treated

If the cells in the cell factory are contaminated by mycoplasma, it is mainly due to the following four reasons: 1. Cross-contamination between cells; 2. Mouth and skin of cell culture operators; 3. Contamination of the working environment or experimental equipment; 4. Culture base pollution.

        FuDau 40-Layers-Cell-Factory-TC-Treated

The above are several reasons for mycoplasma contamination in the cell factory. To avoid this situation, we need to pay attention not to operate two different cells at one time, pay attention to aseptic operation and personal hygiene, etc., to ensure the quality of the medium.