Rapid identification of Mycoplasma pneumoniae cell culture contamination using PCR

Introduction and Objectives: Mycoplasma pneumoniae is one of the mycoplasmas species which could contaminate cell cultures. Identification of M. pneumoniae is so important. The Rapid identification of these contaminations is the objective of this study. It could be significant role in preventing and controlling of contamination in cell cultures. Materials and Methods: In this study, the isolation and detection of M. pneumoniae from 82 cell culture samples being sent to the Mycoplasma Reference Laboratory using PCR method were performed. Briefly, M1F and M3R primers that have the ability to identify mycoplasma genus from the 16S rRNA gene were used. The P1 adhsein gene and MPF and MPR specific primers were used to initiate the PCR reaction to detect Mycoplasma pneumonia. Results: Of the 82 samples, 48 (58.53%) negative and 34 (41.47%) of the samples were positive using mycoplasma genus PCR as diagnostic method. M. pneumoniae did not detect from those sample by using those primers and there is not any M. pneumoniae detected in this study. Conclusion: The results of this study indicate that Mycoplasma pneumoniae is not a factor contributing to cell cultures in Iran. PCR could be an alternative method instead of the culture because according to the results of this study, PCR has high accuracy, speed and cost-effective for detecting M. pneumoniae.

Keywords:

Mycoplasma pneumoniae , Cell culture , PCR