Can foam created when resuspending a cell pellet cause cell demage - (Apr/23/2015 )

Hello,

does anyone have experience whether too much foam created when resuspending cell pellet in the culture medium can cause lower cell viability? (human leukocytes) If so, what is the principle of cell damage - is it physical damage, change of pH or something else?

It seems to be a trivial problem, however we have several operators in the lab performing the same protocol. However one group of operators produce cells of lower viability. Based on the observation how they work it seems that the only difference among the operators is that thay probably make more foam when resuspending cell pellets...Could this be the root cause of our problem?

Thank you for any response!

Daniela

Potentially, yes. Foaming can cause mechanical stress and cause cell drying by creating high tension areas around the interfaces between the bubbles, and areas where the cells are exposed directly to the air. Also of note is that cells that become involved with bubbles might not be able to escape the bubbles (until they pop). Bubbles can also cause areas of low cell attachment on the surface of culture vessels.