Experimental evaluation of cross-contamination between cryotubes containing mouse 2-cell embryos and murine pathogens in liquid nitrogen tanks.

It has been suspected that embryos stored in liquid nitrogen tanks may become contaminated with murine pathogens, if some pathogens had been introduced to the tanks accidentally. To examine this, we stored tubes containing embryos with tubes containing mouse hepatitis virus (MHV) or Pasteurella pneumotropica in liquid nitrogen tanks and examined whether progeny mice derived from the embryos were contaminated with the pathogens or not. After storing for 6 months or 1 year the frozen embryos were thawed and implanted into the oviducts of pseudopregnant female mice, and the mice were bred in vinyl isolators. We could not detect serum antibodies to MHV and isolate Pasteurella pneumotropica in the progeny mice, suggesting that cross-contamination between tubes in a liquid nitrogen tank scarcely occurs.