A novel heart‐cell line from brown‐marbled grouper Epinephelus fuscoguttatus and its susceptibility to iridovirus

• Published in: Journal of Fish Biology
• Main Authors: Wei, Y.‐B., Fan, T.‐J., Jiang, G.‐J., Xu, X.‐H., Sun, A.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 2010
• Subjects: Turbot
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1095-8649.2010.02562.x; https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1111%2Fj.1095-8649.2010.02562.x; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1095-8649.2010.02562.x

A novel cell line (bmGH) was established from the heart of brown‐marbled grouper Epinephelus fuscoguttatus and its viral susceptibility was evaluated. The bmGH cells have been subcultured to passage 65 in Dulbecco's modified eagle medium:Ham's nutrient mixture F‐12 (1:1) medium (DMEM/F12) which was further supplemented with foetal bovine serum (FBS), carboxymethyl‐chitosan, basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) and insulin‐like growth factor‐I (IGF‐I) at 24° C. The heart cells have a fibroblastic morphology and proliferated to confluence 14 days later. The cells grew at a steady rate during subsequent subculture and had a population doubling time of 40·3 h at passage 60. Karyotype analysis showed that these cells exhibited chromosomal aneuploidy with a modal chromosome number of 48. The results of viral susceptibility characterization revealed that cytopathic effects (CPE) of bmGH cells appeared after infection by two iridoviruses, turbot reddish body iridovirus (TRBIV) and lymphocystis disease virus (LCDV). A large number of TRBIV and LCDV particles were also observed in the infected bmGH cells by electron microscope examination. All of these facts indicate that the bmGH cell line established here may serve as a valuable tool for studies of cell‐virus interactions and has potential applications in fish virus isolation, propagation and vaccine development.