Embryotoxicity of micropore filters used in liquid sterilization

Microfiltration is the usual method of sterilization of tissue culture media. The filtrates of eight commercial filters were tested for embryotoxicity using mouse embryo growth. Four of five disk filters tested showed embryotoxicity in the first 5 ml of filtrate and the three largercapacity filters showed embryotoxicity for up to the first 10 ml of filtrate. The ethylene oxide-sterilized filters appeared to give poorer results than the gamma-irradiated filters. The importance of discarding the initial filtrate or preflushing such filters before use is emphasized.