In situ microscopy as online tool for detecting microbial contaminations in cell culture.

Microbial contamination in mammalian cell cultures causing rejected batches is costly and highly unwanted. Most methods for detecting a contamination are time-consuming and require extensive off-line sampling. To circumvent these efforts and provide a more convenient alternative, we used an online in situ microscope to estimate the cell diameter of the cellular species in the culture to distinguish mammalian cells from microbial cells depending on their size. A warning system was set up to alert the operator if microbial cells were present in the culture. Hybridoma cells were cultured and infected with either Candida utilis or Pichia stipitis as contaminant. The warning system could successfully detect the introduced contamination and alert the operator. The results suggest that in situ microscopy could be used as an efficient online tool for early detection of contaminations in cell cultures.

Endoscopic findings in patients with ulcer-like dyspepsia.

One hundred and sixty-seven patients in a single general practice who presented with ulcer-like dyspepsia were offered an upper gastrointestinal fibre endoscopy. Twenty-two patients had a peptic ulcer while only three had a gastric ulcer. One patient had a carcinoma of the cardia, one an adenocarcinoma in the body of the stomach and one a carcinoma at the ampulla of Vater. In another 55 patients the main findings at endoscopy were edema/reddening or erosions in the antral or duodenal mucosa. Endoscopic findings were normal in 46 patients. Malignancies were found only in patients over 50 years of age and only 4 ulcers were seen in patients under 40. The clinical findings of presence of night pain, pain relief after food intake and history of peptic ulcer were more common in patients with an existing peptic ulcer than in those with a normal endoscopy.