S. De Rosa et al., Development in a primary cell culture of the marine sponge Ircinia muscarum and analysis of the polar compounds, MAR BIOTEC, 3(3), 2001, pp. 281-286
We have established a primary cell culture of the marine demosponge Ircinia
muscarum. The culture was started from a cell suspension obtained by a com
bination of mechanical chemical means. Microbial contamination was controll
ed by the use of a pool of antibiotics. Optical density, rather than hemocy
tometer count, is suggested to monitor the cellular growth.;Analysis of the
chemical composition of I. muscarum cells revealed absence of sterols, sho
wing that the cells were unable to biosynthesize sterols. When the medium w
as supplemented with cholesterol an increase of about 70% in the number of
cells was observed. These results suggest that the classic mammalian nutrie
nt medium was not satisfactory for I. muscarum cell growth, and sterols wer
e needed to satisfy the membrane requirements.