M. Constant-neto et al., Method to obtain endoscopic esophageal samples for primary cell culture - Focus on infectious contamination, DIG DIS SCI, 45(8), 2000, pp. 1667-1669
Cell culture techniques hold great importance for the development of molecu
lar biology. However, when used to study oncology, most of the samples come
from surgical specimens. Endoscopy is a interesting alternative to get sam
ples for culture. We studied a protocol to allow the control of infectious
contamination potentially related to endoscopy, which could preclude it as
a method to obtain cells for culture. Esophageal biopsies from 30 patients
were taken through upper gastrointestinal endoscopy, using a previously fla
med forceps, and were cultivated with and without amphotericin. Our results
showed contamination in 3.3% of the wells without the antifungal and in 0.
8% of those with it. Regarding the 30 cases studied, the described protocol
was able to provide samples free of contamination in all of them.