MEM for culturing caco-2 turned pink! - Why?? (Oct/03/2007 )
The MEM that I incubated caco-2 cells with turned pink. Is this normal? It this ok? What could be the reason? Alkaline condition?? I expected it to turn orange. Any advice?? Thanks so much for help in advance!!
Is there CO2 in the Incubator ?
Have you left the top of the bottle open for a long period ?
Are the cells dead ?
These are normally the reasons for the media to turn pink/purple and it is that the phenol red is Alkaline. Normally cells produce acid when they are actively growing i.e. the media turns a yellow colour, it can also turn the same colour when contaminated.
Hey,
the pink colour of your media is probably the result of using 5% CO2 in the incubators and high sodium bicarbonate content in your media (check the recipe for your media). This will cause the media to turn alkaline. If it matters depends on your cells. They might be able to easily handle this and upon cultivation the media will be acidified by the cells.
There are two possibilities to avoid media to turn alkaline:
Increase CO2 to ~7,5% or use media with less sodium bicarbonate. Media with less bicarbonate will also turn a bit pink but rapidly become 'normal' when you put it in the incubator with 5% CO2.
Cheers
the pink colour of your media is probably the result of using 5% CO2 in the incubators and high sodium bicarbonate content in your media (check the recipe for your media). This will cause the media to turn alkaline. If it matters depends on your cells. They might be able to easily handle this and upon cultivation the media will be acidified by the cells.
There are two possibilities to avoid media to turn alkaline:
Increase CO2 to ~7,5% or use media with less sodium bicarbonate. Media with less bicarbonate will also turn a bit pink but rapidly become 'normal' when you put it in the incubator with 5% CO2.
Cheers
Yep. I incubated my culture in 5% carbon dioxide incubator. I don't think that they are dead. I went to look at them just now, and their confluence have increased. I have been using the same bottle of mem for the past 2 weeks. Previously, after incubating caco-2 cells with that same bottle of mem, the mem didn't turn pink. That's why i'm concerned about the colour chnge. Nevertheless, thank you soooooooo much for everybody's advice. =)