MATERIAL SCIENCES: Bioactive Leachates from Lab Plastics: Use of Plastic Disposables May Compromise Bioassay Results

摘要

Published and anecdotal evidence suggests that bioassay results may be compromised by pharmacologically active compounds leaching from plastic ware into buffers and solvents. False positives, false negatives, lost productivity and unnecessary expense can be minimized if researchers follow some simple guidelines. Pipette tips, microfuge tubes, multiwell plates, syringes, conical centrifuge tubes; disposable plastic items used routinely in tens of thousands of laboratories worldwide, by academic and industrial scientists. That the use of such plastic items may interfere with bioassays has been considered by manufacturers of laboratory ware; siliconized or otherwise coated plastics to which proteins will not bind, and plastics certified as DNAase-, RNAase- and pyrogen-free, are testament to such concerns. However, are these precautions sufficient to ensure the integrity of bioassay results? The identification of bisphenol-A in liquids stored in polycarbonate bottles [1] suggests that a clean, sterile or inert plastic surface does not guarantee that liquids will not be contaminated by species migrating from the plastic into solution. Indeed, recent data from our laboratories and from others indicate that this is likely to be a widespread problem impacting results from all areas of life science research.