Quantifying cross-contamination from tissue homogenization with a rotor-stator homogenizer equipped with a stainless-steel generator probe

Hand-held rotor-stator homogenizers are laboratory staples for sample prep, allowing convenient access to analytes under investigation, such as protein and nucleic acid. They are effective solutions, but require ample due diligence when it comes to proper cleaning between every sample to prevent cross-contamination. In assays that are sensitive to even small amounts of carryover - such as PCR-based techniques - insufficient cleaning can make a difference in the resulting dataset; thus, the general recommendation is to perform a full disassembly and autoclave. We evaluated the effectiveness of standard cleaning procedures on rat liver tissue using 2 cycles of washing with no disassembly, and we found that multiple washes did reduce carryover levels below the limit of detection for nanodrop for our study. We also reviewed the carryover with gel electrophoresis for each cycle of spin-washes, and observed bands sufficient to suspect analytes were likely sufficiently still present for sensitive PCR-based techniques, including NGS. We would defer to using disposable plastic probes, like the single-use Omni Tip™, for our next studies as it can not only significantly reduce contamination risks, but streamline workflows.

For research use only. Not for use in diagnostic procedures.