Well, I'm with you on this one, Carol. The sheath tanks on both our Vantage and MoFlo are cleaned with bacteriocidal detergent and/or ethanol and rinsed out with autoclaved dH20 or PBS on the bench. The in-line 0.22µ filters then take care of anything nasty that gets through that lot. While we are cleaning the tanks, though, we are lucky in having a number of spares so we take that opportunity to clean the sample and sheath lines as these are more important. We also periodically wash through with detergent. Also all exposed surfaces and operators are washed with ethanol. We have very few sorts contaminated and even those that are can generally be traced back to the users filthy samples..... Derek On Fri, 8 Oct 1999, Carol Oxford wrote: > Wow! I'm starting to feel a little inadequate here, but you guys are > working a lot harder than I am. I have a .2 um in-line filter on my MoFlo, > so I rinse the tank with a little ethanol at the beginning of the week, > then fill up the tank daily in the open. We've never had a contamination > yet, and we routinely swich back and forth between bacteria, yeast, and > mammalian cells. I pay a lot more attention to the sample lines- I use > ethanol, CoulterCleanse, and sterile H20 to set up for a sterile sort, but > I don't ever pay much attention to the sheath tank. ************************************************************************ Derek Davies Voice: (44) 0171 269 3394 FACS Laboratory, FAX: (44) 0171 269 3100 Imperial Cancer Research Fund, e_mail: derek.davies@icrf.icnet.uk London, UK Web Page: http://www.icnet.uk/axp/facs/davies/index.html In tenebris lux *************************************************************************
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