Two contamination issues with hADSCs - (Oct/08/2014 )

Hello all,

I am trying to figure out what is going on with my human adipose-derived stem cell culture purchased from Lonza.  One issue is what seems to be a fungal contamination.  I have attached two images of the cell culture under the microscope and of the flask (image 1 and 2).  If I seem to have a fungal contamination, do I need to go through everything are sterilize it?  What do you all consider to be the best method to clear this issue up? 

Additionally, I seem to have an odd cell shape to some of the adipose-derived stem cells in some of the cell cultures (image 3).  It seems to be overtaking a large number of the cells.  I don't believe there's any possible way it could be contamination from another cell-line because I never change media or passage cells in conjunction with other cell types.  Is this typical behavior for adipose-derived stem cells?

Thank you for your help!

It is hard to say whether you have a fungal (yeast) infection of your culture. Do you have any higher magnification images or could you look for budding ovals or circles, which would indicate yeast. From your image it could just be cell debris.

AS to the cell line cross contamination - it is possible that you have more than one cell type in a primary culture, the ones that overgrow are likely to be fibroblastic cell types. However, it is also possible that you have contaminated the cells by contaminating medium with another cell type and then using that on your cells.