Cell Culture Bacterial Contamination

[Katt]

My lab has frozen peripheral blood mononuclear leukocytes which are contaminated by gram positive rods. These cells are extremely important and we are looking for a way to transform these cells into a B-Lymphoblastoid immortal cell line while at the same time getting rid of the gram positive rods. The source of this contamination is from the ficoll-hypaque used during blood processing. We have tried a 2 week pen/strep routine with poor results. Can anyone recommend an antibiotic regiment or strategy for eliminating this bacteria? Any help is greatly appreciated!

[Fauna]

You could do an antibiotic susceptibility test to see which antibiotics will be effective. If you don’t have the where-with-all to perform such test, try a broad spectrum drug like tetracycline.