Development of a cell culture system from the ovarian tissue of African catfish (Clarias gariepinus)

A growth medium with Leibovitz-15 (L-15) as the base, supplemented with foe tal bovine serum (10% v/v), fish muscle extract (10% v/v), prawn muscle ext ract (10% v/v), lectin (concanavalin A) (0.02 mug ml(-1)), lipopolysacchari de (0.02 Ctg ml(-1)), glucose D (0.2 mg ml(-1)), ovary extract (0.5% v/v) a nd prawn haemolymph (0.5%) has been formulated with 354 +/- 10 mOsm for the development and maintenance of a cell culture system from the ovarian tiss ue of African catfish, Clarias gariepinus. For its subculturing, a cell dis sociation/extracting solution, composed of equal portions of trypsin phosph ate versene glucose (TPVG) (containing 0.0125% (w/v) trypsin and 25% (v/v) non-enzymatic cell dissociation solution 1 and 2, has also been developed w ith which the cell culture can be passaged 15 times after which they cease to multiply and consequently perish. The cell cultures can be maintained fo r 12-15 days without fluid change between the passages. This is the first r eport of a cell culture system from the ovarian tissues of African catfish. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.