When should I add Ara-C as a mitotic inhibitor for astroglia?
In the Neurobasal/B27 culture medium that we recommend, you do not need to add Ara-C at all. The medium does not artificially stimulate astroglial proliferation like serum does. Try it! 4. My cultures started with BrainBits tissue are contaminated. They looked fine at the start, but now the medium is cloudy and yellow with numerous 1-3 um long phase dark bodies. There are at least 5 possible sources of contamination (assuming other cultures in your incubator are not contaminated and the humidifying water in the base of the incubator is clear): 1. The culture vessel itself. Control by adding freshly filtered medium to a number of culture vessels. 2. The adhesive substrate material. This is not uncommon. BrainBits has prepared sterile substrate cover slips for you to test. You can also put freshly filtered culture medium on your prepared substrates to look for this source of contamination. 3. The medium itself or one of its additives (e.g., glutamine). This is not uncommon. Be sure to in
