Cross-contamination of cell cultures?

Hello,

I work with cell cultures of an adherent cancer cell line and so do
some other scientists in our lab but they use a different cancer cell
line. Both cell lines have very different morphology so they can
easily be distinguished. Their cells are round and small, whereas my
cells are larger and stretched.

Now, as soon as my cell cultures have grown up a bit, I also tend to
see a lot of round and small cells, which - I first thought - are
cells that remained unadhered. I do not see these cells in the
beginning. However, comparing cell cultures from the other lab group
to these round and small cells in my cell cultures made me suppose
that this might be a cross-contamination with the other cell line.

Is there any way to confirm my assumption? Is there any way to get rid
of the cross-contamination?

Peter

In article <[Only registered users see links. ]> ,
Peter Frank <[Only registered users see links. ]> wrote:

Cross-contamination of cell lines is relatively common and has been the
cause of some embarassing retractions. It's hard for me to picture how it
happens, but it certainly can happen.

To confirm your assumption you'd want to check out how the cell lines are
different. Is one from male, one from female? Check the Y chromosome
content in each cell type. Is one aneuploid? Do they have different
surface markers?

To get rid of the cross-contamination, probably the easiest thing is
limiting dilution subcloning.

Ian
--
Ian York ([Only registered users see links. ]) <http://www.panix.com/~iayork/>
"-but as he was a York, I am rather inclined to suppose him a
very respectable Man." -Jane Austen, The History of England