VANCOMYCIN AND AMIKACIN IN CELL-CULTURES FOR VIRUS ISOLATION

Contamination of cell cultures for virus isolation has been increasing ly encountered. By reviewing and changing the antimicrobials incorpora ted in cell culture media, we aim to control this problem. Contaminate d cell culture fluids were inoculated for bacterial and fungal isolati on, identification and antibacterial susceptibility testing. Based on the above results, vancomycin and amikacin were chosen to replace the penicillin and gentamicin used conventionally. Analysis was carried ou t on various characteristics of cell culture with respect to antimicro bial change. All contaminating Grampositive bacteria were susceptible to vancomycin while about 80% of the Gram-negative bacteria were sensi tive to amikacin. The new antimicrobial combination was not toxic to c ell cultures and both antimicrobials were found to remain stable in me dia for over six months. The virus isolation rate was maintained after antimicrobial change while the contamination rate was reduced from ne arly 10% to 1.5%. We thus conclude that vancomycin and amikacin can we ll replace the conventional penicillin and gentamicin to be incorporat ed into maintenance and transport media to control the emerging proble m of viral culture contamination.