cells Article A New Sensitive Method for the Detection of Mycoplasmas Using Fluorescence Microscopy Anna Ligasová 1,* , Markéta Vydržalová 2, Renata Buriánová 1, Lenka Br ˚uˇcková 2, Renata Veˇceˇrová 3, Anna Janošt’áková 1 and Karel Koberna 1,* 1 Institute of Molecular and Translational Medicine, Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, Palacký University Olomouc, Hnˇevotínská 5, 779 00 Olomouc, Czech Republic;
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[email protected] (A.J.) 2 Faculty of Chemical Technology, University of Pardubice, Studentská 573, 532 10 Pardubice, Czech Republic;
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[email protected] (L.B.) 3 Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, Palacký University Olomouc, Hnˇevotínská 3, 779 00 Olomouc, Czech Republic;
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[email protected] (K.K.); Tel.: +420-585632184 (A.L.); +420-585632184 (K.K.) Received: 9 October 2019; Accepted: 23 November 2019; Published: 25 November 2019 Abstract: Contamination of cell cultures by mycoplasmas is a very common phenomenon. As they can substantially alter cell metabolism and potentially spread to all cell cultures in laboratory, their early detection is necessary. One of the fastest and cheapest methods of mycoplasma detection relies on the direct staining of mycoplasmas’ DNA by DAPI or Hoechst dyes. Although this method is easy and fast to perform, it suffers from the low signal provided by these dyes compared to the nuclear DNA. Therefore, the reporter cell lines are used for cultivation of mycoplasmas before DAPI or the Hoechst staining step. In the study presented, we have developed and tested a new immunofluorescence assay for the detection of mycoplasmas.