Primary mantle tissue culture from the bivalve mollusc Mytilus galloprovincialis: investigations on the growth promoting activity of the serum used for medium supplementation

The main objective of the present work was to evaluate with a quantitative approach the effects of different chicken serum (CS) concentrations in the medium used for mussel mantle tissue culturing. Our results showed that a CS level of 20% was optimal. Under these conditions, the cultures reached a maximum mean number of mitotic figures per slide exceeding widely 100. Cultures were also achieved to test whether CS must be heat treated to inactivate complement components before use for medium enrichment. We demonstrated that heat inactivation did not significantly change the promoting activity of the CS. Finally, the growth-stimulatory properties of CS were compared to those of fetal calf serum (FCS). The best results were obtained with 30% FCS. The difference with 20% CS was not statistically significant, but the FCS yielded a much higher level of polyploid metaphases than the CS. Since it had no adverse effect such as polyploid metaphases induction, was readily commercially available and relatively less expensive than other additives, CS at the concentration of 20%, without heat-decomplementation, is routinely used as growth medium supplement for mussel mantle cell culturing in our laboratory. Even though our primary cultures do not have the potency of continuous cell lines, it is possible to use such cultures for in vitro experiments.