Sterile Filtration and Clarification

Why Filter Sterilize Your Cell Culture Media?

All too frequently, days or even weeks of cell culture work can be lost when bacterial, fungal, or yeast contaminants are unknowingly introduced. Unfortunately, the same nutrient media that is used to grow cell cultures is often ideal for promoting the growth of these contaminants, which can quickly ruin your cultures.  

While there is no substitute for aseptic technique, sterilization of liquids used during cell culture assures you that media and reagents are not a source of contaminants. Heat sterilization (autoclaving) is not an option for many liquids, as autoclaving may destroy critical cell culture media components and biomolecules needed for normal cell growth. Filtration, therefore, is the method of choice for sterilizing cell culture media and additives. Filters capable of ambient sterilization are also useful for the general clarification and purification of cellular lysates as a means to enhance the recovery of target biomolecules.

Pall manufactures membranes that are used to sterilize liquid reagents, remove particulate contamination, and clarify solutions prior to further processing. These products are optimized for biological, pharmaceutical, and sterilizing filtration requirements. Whether you are preparing small volumes of reagents, individual bottles of buffers or media, or developing pharmaceutical processes, we have the products to optimize your sterile filtration applications and:

• Reduce filtration time
• Increase throughput
• Reduce the need for multiple filter changes
• Save in overall filtration costs

Stringent Quality Specifications for Cell Culture Sterilization

At Pall, quality and ease of use are engineered into every device. We manufacture our own membranes to ensure consistent performance from lot to lot. Examples of our stringent quality specifications include:

• Sterilization by Gamma Irradiation – Products with Supor®, Fluorodyne® II, Versapor®, and HT Tuffryn® membranes are presterilized by gamma irradiation to eliminate potential cytotoxic residuals associated with EtO sterilization. These presterilized devices are individually packaged for convenience.
• Biological Safety – Passes United States Pharmacopeia (USP) Biological Reactivity Test, In Vivo <88>.
• Non-pyrogenic – Products are tested for bacterial endotoxin using the Limulus Amoebocyte Lysate (LAL) test to ensure safety.
• Low Extractables – Products are optimized to reduce extractables, ensuring that unwanted materials are not introduced into filtered liquids.

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