Cell cross-contamination in cell cultures: the silent and neglected danger
Abstract
Cell cross-contamination in cell cultures is a common problem during cell culturing and use. Contamination invalidates research results, compromises the comparison of results between laboratories, reduces reproducibility required in industrial production of cell lines, and may lead to unusable therapeutic products. The problem can be solved by increasing the awareness of its seriousness and by introducing regular quality control of cell cross-contamination in every laboratory where cells are grown and used.
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Conventional karyotyping has been reported to detect contamination when present in as little as 1% of a culture.
“Conventional karyotyping has been reported to detect contamination when present in as little as 1% of a culture [31,97].”
From The history, landscape, and outlook of human cell line authentication and security (2024) · cites this paper as [31]
Antigen-antibody reactions can only positively detect cells, but they are sensitive to contamination at or above 0.1% of a culture.
“Antigen-antibody reactions can only positively detect cells, but they are sensitive to contamination ≥ 0.1% of a culture [31,78].”
From The history, landscape, and outlook of human cell line authentication and security (2024) · cites this paper as [31]
Mechanisms for CCCM include use of the same media and reagents to culture different cell lines, mislabeling of cultures, and laboratory disorganization.
“The mechanisms for CCCM are diverse, ranging from use of the same media and reagents to culture different cell lines to mislabeling of cultures and laboratory disorganization [27,31].”
From The history, landscape, and outlook of human cell line authentication and security (2024) · cites this paper as [31]
DNA fingerprinting can detect contamination between human cell lines when it composes at least 5% of a culture.
“DNA Fingerprinting may have difficulty discriminating between closely-related cells, but it can detect contamination between human cell lines when it composes ≥ 5% of a culture [31,97].”
From The history, landscape, and outlook of human cell line authentication and security (2024) · cites this paper as [31]
Isoenzyme and allozyme analysis can generally detect contamination affecting at least 5-10% of the culture population.
“The electrophoretic mobilities of chosen enzymes from a given cell are used to generate a unique gel banding pattern that can generally detect contamination affecting ≥ 5-10% of the culture population [24,31,78,97].”
From The history, landscape, and outlook of human cell line authentication and security (2024) · cites this paper as [31]
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The history, landscape, and outlook of human cell line authentication and security
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- Authors
- Markovic, O., & Markovic, N.
- Affiliations
- United States Food and Drug Administration (US)
- Venue
- In Vitro Cellular & Developmental Biology - Animal
- Published
- 1998-01
- Volume
- 34
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 1-8
- ISSN
- 1071-2690 (ISSN-L)
- 1543-706X
- OpenAlex
- W2082533922
- Cited by
- 110
- References
- 2
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 4 · 2017: 3 · 2016: 5 · 2015: 2 · 2014: 1 · 2013: 2 · 2012: 3
- FWCI
- 0.40
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Licence
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- In Vitro Cellular & Developmental Biology - Animal (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Viral Infectious Diseases and Gene Expression in Insects
- Life Sciences › Immunology and Microbiology › Microbiology › Microbial infections and disease research
- Health Sciences › Veterinary › Small Animals › Animal testing and alternatives
- Keywords
- cell culture contamination, laboratory quality control, reproducibility, contaminant screening
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Humans, Cell Culture Techniques
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