title: Storage and repeated recovery of Neisseria gonorrhoeae using cryovials.
abstract: One hundred gonococcal isolates, representing eight protein IA serovars and 14 protein IB serovars, were stored at -70 degrees C using the Pro-Lab Microbank cryovial storage system. At monthly intervals a bead from each cryovial was removed and cultured on modified New York City medium. The overall recovery rate was 98.6% (2365/2400), the 35 failures representing 13 separate isolates. There was a small but significant decrease in recovery in the last 12 months of the trial (97.8%) compared with the first 12 months (99.8%), which may have been due to a sampling problem rather than a temporal phenomenon. Failures were significantly associated with minor serovars, suggesting that the transmissibility/viability of minor serovars may be lower than that of common serovars and could be a significant factor in the epidemiology of gonococcal infection. We conclude that Pro-Lab Microbank cryovials provide a highly effective and convenient system for storage of Neisseria gonorrhoeae, particularly when multiple retrieval is required, and the system offers many advantages over conventional lyophilisation.
authors.affiliation: Scottish Gonococcal Reference Laboratory, Department of Medical Microbiology, Edinburgh University Medical School, Scotland, UK.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Moyes
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Young
mesh_terms: D015925:Cryopreservation; D006801:Humans; D009344:Neisseria gonorrhoeae / Q000145:classification / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D012703:Serotyping