Present knowledge and experience on the strategies employed by mycoplasma contamination of the human cell cultures

Introduction: Mycoplasma species often contaminate cell cultures and other cell-derived biologicals, leading to detrimental host effects that include changes in growth, morphology, metabolism and protein synthesis.. In cell cultures, mycoplasma are extracellular parasites, usually attached to the external surface of a cell membrane. Many researchers use the mixature of penicillin and streptomycin in the cells culture like prevention of contamination.
Material and methods: We prepare the cell cultures of lymphocytes from peripheral blood of 12 subjects and used standard method, micronucleus assey for detection of micronuclei in binuclear lymphocytes.
Results: Use of standard antibiotics does not protect cell cultures against mycoplasma contamination. Penicillin has no effect on mycoplasma since mycoplasma lack a cell wall. Streptomycin inhibits about half the mycoplasma strains but is ineffective against many others. In fact, mycoplasmas are generally resistant to most antibiotic mixtures commonly used in cell culture. We didn’t found the mycoplasma contamination in the cell culture without penicillin-streptomycin and the other hand we confirme the infection in the culture with mixature of antibiotics.
Conclusion: Antibiotics and mixature of antibiotics like penicillin-streptomycin doesen’t protect the cell culture of mycoplasma. A contamination can spread rapidly to other cell lines through aerosol droplet dispersion.