Quality control of biotechnological inputs detecting Mycoplasma

Abstract

The aim of this work was to study the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) as a tool of quality control of bovine sera and cellular cultures used in the biotechnological industry. A total of 46 samples of bovine sera derived from two slaughterhouses and 33 samples of BHK21 cells derived from two biotechnological industries were evaluated using the primers GPO-3 (sense) and MGSO (antisense). The PCR technique sensibility analysis showed that 280 bp were amplified for the quantities of 50 ng to 0.006 ng of Micoplasma DNA. The primers specificity was confirmed in the test using Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Bacillus subtilis and Candida albicans; except by the positive control, none of the samples showed amplification. The presence of Mycoplasma in bovine sera and in the cultures of BHK21 cells showed that 56.5 and 15.2%, respectively, were contaminated. Thus, it was possible to conclude that PCR was a fast and confident technique to detect mycoplasma and that it could be used to control the quality of immunobiological products and inputs, such as sera and cultures of BHK21 cells.