mycoplasma effects on cells - will mycoplasma kill the cells? (Aug/16/2006 )

Hi,


After reading on posts of mycoplasma contamination and detection methods here, as well as some resources over the net, i'm interested to know what sort of effects that mycoplasma have on cultured cells. Will mycoplasma contamination kills off cultured cells, such as Hela and 293s? Or will it lead to some sort of morphological changes in cells?

Would be glad if someone could enlighten me on this issue, or direct me to some references (preferably online) that i could read up on the effects of mycoplasma on cultured cells in general.


Thanks

Mycoplasmas Can Cause:

"Alterations in cell growth rate
Inhibited or stimulated cellular transformation
Morphological changes, potentially deleterious
Altered DNA, RNA, and protein synthesis
Altered enzyme actions
Chromosomal abnormalities
Reduced or increased virus yields
Depeleted nutrients from growth media
Altered cell surface antigenic characteristics
Decreased malignancy of tumor cells"

I can't find the details on the article I got this from ... it was a copy I found.

It's called "Mycoplasma Contamination: A Critical Concern in Tissue Culture Applications" by Christina Liu
From what I believe is a distributor of somesort "Gelman Sciences" in a section called Technical Information.
It's a really good short very useful article ... if you can find it.

thanks.. i'll try to find that reference