Ultraviolet-filtering properties of commonly used tissue cell culture plasticware

Fluorescent sunlamps are a common source of ultraviolet radiation (UVR) for photobiology research. However, these lamps emit a significant amount of biologically "irrelevant" wavelengths that, if not removed, can drastically skew results and perhaps lead to mistaken conclusions regarding human photobiology. The use of a cellulose triacetate sheet (Kodacel) to filter the shorter ultraviolet wavelengths has become the accepted standard in photobiology. Over time, the transmission characteristics of this sheet may be altered due to photochemical changes. In addition, in vitro experiments utilizing filtered fluorescent sunlamps require the removal of plastic tissue cell culture lids, increasing the possibility of contamination.

We evaluated the transmission characteristics of various commercially available plastic lids used in tissue cell cultures. In addition, we used a biological system containing the human elastin promoter/chloramphenicol acetyltransferase reporter gene construct to compare the effects of filtering from these plastic lids.

Here, we demonstrate that the transmission of UVR and the biological response through plastic culture dish lids is similar to that of Kodacel.

Although this is an improvement for in vitro experiments, further improvements can be made using more realistic UVR sources, e.g. UVA-340 lamps, which mimic the short wavelengths of sunlight.