Recurrent Aspergillus contamination in a biomedical research facility: a case study

Fungal contamination of biomedical processes and facilities can result in major revenue loss and product delay. A biomedical research facility (BRF) culturing human cell lines experienced recurring fungal contamination of clean room incubators over a 3-year period. In 2010, as part of the plan to mitigate contamination, 20 fungal specimens were isolated by air and swab samples at various locations within the BRF. Aspergillus niger and Aspergillus fumigatus were isolated from several clean-room incubators. A. niger and A. fumigatus were identified using sequence comparison of the 18S rRNA gene. To determine whether the contaminant strains isolated in 2010 were the same as or different from strains isolated between 2007 and 2009, a novel forensic approach to random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) PCR was used. The phylogenetic relationship among isolates showed two main genotypic clusters, and indicated the continual presence of the same A. fumigatus strain in the clean room since 2007. Biofilms can serve as chronic sources of contamination; visual inspection of plugs within the incubators revealed fungal biofilms. Moreover, confocal microscopy imaging of flow cell-grown biofilms demonstrated that the strains isolated from the incubators formed dense biofilms relative to other environmental isolates from the BRF. Lastly, the efficacies of various disinfectants employed at the BRF were examined for their ability to prevent spore germination. Overall, the investigation found that the use of rubber plugs around thermometers in the tissue culture incubators provided a microenvironment where A. fumigatus could survive regular surface disinfection. A general lesson from this case study is that the presence of microenvironments harboring contaminants can undermine decontamination procedures and serve as a source of recurrent contamination.