An Established Cell Line from the Atlantic Salmon (<i>Salmo salar</i>)

Abstract

A monolayer culture of fibroblast-like cells was initiated from a trypsin digest of heart, liver, kidney, and spleen tissue of young Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar). This culture has been subcultured 81 times over a period of 21 months and appears to be an established cell line, which we have designated AS. Cells of the AS line multiply over a temperature range of 4–28 C with an optimum growth temperature of 20 C. Temperatures in excess of 29 C cause rapid cell death. The AS cells remain viable for periods up to 6 months at 4 C. An absolute plating efficiency of 30% has been determined for AS cells at 20 C. Analysis of the cell cycle of AS cells reveals a generation time (G t ) of 19.5 hr. The duration of the DNA synthetic period (S) is 10.5 hr, while the G 1 and G 2 periods are 1.1 and 7.1 hr, respectively. The duration of mitosis (M) has been calculated to be 0.9 hr with a mitotic index (M.I.) for the culture of 3.3%. Preliminary studies indicate a modal chromosome number of 54. The AS cell line is susceptible to infectious pancreatic necrosis (IPN) virus, infectious hematopoietic necrosis (IHN) virus and the myxovirus of bluegills.