My penny's worth:- Ethanol also is a most effective fixative agent (!) & as such will fix any residual protein, et. al. on to the walls of your instrument's tubing, flow cell, etc. very efficiently as well! "Zip". >>>---> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > Date sent: Mon, 24 Feb 1997 11:44:40 +0000 > To: Cytometry Mailing List <cytometry@flowcyt.cyto.purdue.edu> > From: Arnold Pizzey <a.pizzey@ucl.ac.uk> > Subject: Clean machines > > > Greetings all. > > > I would question the efficacy of using 70% ETOH alone as a > sterilization agent specifically in flow as well as generally in the > laboratory. Although ETOH has some bactericidal activity against common > water-borne contaminants such as the pseudomonads and the like I would > imagine that most airborne contaminants that float into the sheath tank > would be of the Gram-positive persuasion and as such quite resistant to the > effect of ETOH. > As for swabbing down external surfaces with 70% ETOH, I would regard this > as an excellent strategy for mobilizing bacterial aerosol. > > On the few occasions when I have had to carry out sterile sorting, my > strategy is as follows: > > Clean sort nozzle/flow cell /sheath tank with a proprietary detergent and > rinse in sterile H2O. > Wash the sort collection area down with a proprietary detergent > Bypass the in-line sheath filter, Then flush system with following: > 1)H2O > 2)Surface active agent e.g. 0.1% DECON 90 > 3)Sterile H20 > 4)Sterile sheath fluid > 5)Fit new sterile in-line sheath filter. > > Regards . > > Arnold. > _____________________________________________________ > Arnold Pizzey > Department of Haematology > 98 Chenies Mews > London WC1E 6HX > E-mail a.pizzey@ucl.ac.uk. > Voice (0)171 209 6234; > fax (0)171 209 6222. > _____________________________________________________ >
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