There are various methods for eliminating mycoplasma contamination. These fall into one of four categories: chemotherapeutic, chemical, immunological, and physical. Elimination techniques include antibiotic treatment, exposure to detergents, exposure to complement, cell cloning, heat treatment, and filtration1. Unfortunately, many of these techniques have been shown to be unreliable, as they cannot kill all Mycoplasma species. They are also very time-consuming and are not very efficient at removing contamination. Antibiotic treatment, for instance, has shown promising results in mycoplasma-contaminated leukemia-lymphoma cell lines. However, in 3–20% of cultures, the mycoplasma bacteria were resistant, and in 3–11% of treatments, cytotoxicity was observed1.
If antibiotics are unable to clear the mycoplasma contamination, bacteriostatic antimicrobial agents might help to inhibit the growth of the bacteria. Another approach would be to first try one antibiotic, and if this isn’t effective, use another antibiotic on a backup positive culture (i.e. one that you had stored separately, before your first attempt at eliminating the contamination).
Elimination of mycoplasma contamination can also be achieved by using specially formulated reagents, such as MycoZapTM Mycoplasma Elimination Reagent. This reagent combines antibiotic and antimetabolic agents to eliminate detectable mycoplasma contamination in as little as four days. We have optimized it to clear mycoplasma contamination with minimal effects to your cell cultures.
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