The establishment and study of two elasmobranch cell lines

The present study describes the first cell lines produced from members of class Chondrichthyes. Explants of brain tissue from Carcharhinus falciformis (silky shark) and Ginglymostoma cirratum (nurse shark) were incubated in a mammalian medium modified with the addition of urea, trimethylamine N-oxide, NaCl, and bovine serum. Primary monolayers were passaged with 0.025% trypsin in a modified saline solution. Silky shark cells grew optimally at 29C. The population doubling time for C. falciformis cells at passage 29 was 67 hours. For G. cirratum cells at passage 6 the population doubling was 84 hours. Silky shark cells grew over a broad range of osmolalities from 315 mOsm to a 1664 mOsm with optimal growth at 650 mOsm. A medium containing 10% dimethylsulfoxide allowed for cryopreservation with greater than 65% viability upon recovery. Current theories of elasmobranch osmoregulation are discussed in light of experimental data collected from studies conducted on the silky shark cell line.