Candida contamination in cell culture???????

[Cindy Brunner]

In article <tyr-2-1603971614340001 at news.srv.ualberta.ca> tyr-2 at bones.biochem.ualberta.ca (Karl Fischer) writes:
>In article <5ggqoq$1bj2 at research-01.ski.mskcc.org>,
>9321531k at clinmed.gla.ac.uk (Obaid Yusuf Khan) wrote:
>> We have had some contamination in our cel culture which looked very 
strange, ...Had it checked out and there was "some evidence of candida".

It can happen.  Way back in the early years of my experience with cell 
culture, my lab experienced a similar contamination problem.  Medium in 
the flasks developed slight turbidity, invaders were noted with the inverted 
'scope, etc.  The microbiology lab in my department cultured Candida spp. from 
the medium in the flasks.  They knew what they were doing--one of their 
specialty areas was medical mycology.  Upon checking with more experienced 
cell culturists, I was told that Candida contamination is not uncommon and the 
source is probably iatrogenic (read that:  poor technique introduces human 
flora into a constituent of the medium or into a flask).

As is often the case, to prevent is easier than to cure.

CJB