An Extensive Method for Maintenance of Sterility in Mammalian Cell Culture Laboratory Routine

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.