A polymerase chain reaction based method for detecting Mycoplasma/Acholeplasma contaminants in cell culture.

A detection system that utilizes a primer mixture in a nested polymerase chain reaction for detecting Mycoplasma contaminants in cell cultures is described. Primers were designed to amplify the spacer regions between the 16S and 23S ribosomal RNA genes of Mycoplasma and Acholeplasma. This detection system was able to detect 20-180 colony forming units per milliliter of sample.

Detection of a cell line contaminated with hog cholera virus.

Cell lines from the repository of the American Type Culture Collection were examined for possible contamination with bovine viral diarrhea virus. During testing, hog cholera virus (HCV) was detected in the IB-RS-2 D10 porcine kidney cell line. This variant of HCV was avirulent for pigs and seldom induced detectable concentrations of antibody against reference viruses (HCV-Ames or bovine viral diarrhea virus-NY1) in serum of inoculated pigs.

Survey of cell lines in the American Type Culture Collection for bovine viral diarrhea virus.

Cell lines originating from cattle, sheep, goat, deer, bison, swine, rabbit, hamster, cat, dog, monkey, human, and mosquito were obtained from the American Type Culture Collection and tested for contamination with bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV). Immunocytochemical procedures and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification were used to detect viral antigen or viral RNA in 13 of 41 cell lines. The results of these procedures correlated exactly.

Differential inhibition of two molecular forms of melanoma cell plasminogen activator by a placental inhibitor.

The inhibitory effect of a placental urokinase inhibitor on the one- and two-chain form of melanoma cell derived plasminogen activator (PA) was investigated. The melanoma cell PA has been shown to be similar to or identical with the PA found in normal tissue. With constant concentration of placental inhibitor the rate of inhibition of the two-chain form was fast in contrast to that of the one-chain form.