Cultivation of cells from the heart of the hard clam,Meretrix lusoria (Röding)

The present study defines a culture system for heart tissue of hard clam,Meretrix lusoria (Roding). The tissue explants were cultured in six synthetic media supplemented with 10% fetal bovine serum and grown at 28° C. All of the media used in the present study support good cell migration and L15 medium gave the best result. Monolayer cell sheets of heart tissue established in 2X L15 growth medium consist of cardiac myocytes, epithelial-like, and fibroblastlike cells. Mitoses were observed in the culture system. To trigger the proliferation of cells, pronase, collagenase, insulin, fibroblast growth factor (FGF), and epidermal growth factor (EGF) were used individually or combined in the L15 growth medium. The results showed pronase and collagenase at a concentration level of 100 μg/ml promoted cell proliferation. In contrast, insulin, FGF, and EGF gave no positive result. To date, cell cultures derived from the hard clam have been subcultured 6 times. Morphologic characterizations for the cells were also performed.