Abstract
Summary
Mycoplasma infection of human cell cultures significantly changed results of tests for complement-dependent antibody. Infected Me180 cells were lysed with a larger number of sera and with higher serum dilutions than the corresponding uninfected cells. Certain groups of sera (e.g., sera from the patients with lymphomas) showed a more striking difference when tested against the contaminated versus uncontaminated Me180 cells. A similar change in target cell sensitivity was also observed with two lines of human skin fibroblasts. Mycoplasma infection is an important factor to consider in interpreting the results of experiments dependent on cultured cells.
This work was supported by research grant CA 12800 from the National Cancer Institute, NIH, U.S. Public Health Service. The author was supported by post-doctoral fellowship, 7-F02-Ca34904 from the NCI, NIH, U.S. Public Health Service. I thank Dr. John L. Fahey for significant contributions and helpful discussion, and Inga Peterson and Marilyn Jobin for capable technical assistance.
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