Eradication of Mycoplasma contamination from cell lines of different origin by the 5-bromouracil-fluorochrome procedure.

Because mycoplasmas contaminate irreplaceable, established cell lines, several laboratories have been looking for effective procedures to eradicate the infection. This report presents the experience of our laboratory in using the 5-bromouracil-fluorochrome method developed by Marcus et al. which turned out to be effective in eliminating Mycoplasma orale, M. hyorhinis and M. hominis from transformed cell lines of different origin. The metastatic potential of a highly metastatic murine fibroblastic cell line infected with M. orale was restored to its original level after the contamination was eliminated.