Abstract
Cell culture laboratories are designed to secure sterile environments for biological studies, and its susceptibility to biological contaminants is a major problem for researchers. Contamination can generally be overcome by frequently disposing of contaminated materials, cleaning and maintaining the sanitation of working areas, but in some cases, it is hard to eradicate the source(s) of contaminating agents completely. In particular, mold and fungal-based contaminants could be a devastating problem for any laboratory. Therefore, various contamination types can repeat over time and result in an increasing problem in the lab. To control and eliminate possible contaminations, a periodic cleaning treatment with disinfectant materials should be a routine procedure of every specialized laboratory, regardless of the existence of any contamination. The conventional method for maintaining hygiene in cell culture laboratories is to clean all surfaces with 70% ethanol; however, this may not be the complete solution. This paper presents a short and easy way to check whether any contamination source(s) are present in laboratories. After identification of the most contaminant-rich areas, without any distinction, each laboratory surface where the culturing samples were taken was comprehensively treated with suggested concentrations of ethanol, sodium hypochlorite and Virkon-S solutions. The method might be useful to regularly check and maintain the cleanliness and hygiene of entire cell culture laboratories to enable the control of possible contaminations in advance.
Highlights
Cell culture applications are widely performed in specified cell culture laboratories to study numerous aspects of molecular biology, including cellular metabolism, therapy, genetics and biotechnology
During diverse cell culture applications, one of the flasks was identified with an unknown bacterial contamination
Possible contamination sources derived from various laboratory instruments and/or any surfaces were examined for the major contaminant origins
Summary
Cell culture applications are widely performed in specified cell culture laboratories to study numerous aspects of molecular biology, including cellular metabolism, therapy, genetics and biotechnology These laboratories are designated as isolated areas with good ventilation and equipped with specified instruments providing sterile environments in appropriate locations, and are desired to meet the regulations for biological safety requirements. In BSL2 laboratories, sterility is usually secured by the common use of ethanol for regular cleaning purposes in the working areas and spraying it onto the lids and edges of almost all laboratory materials before each use [2,3].
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