A new epithelial cell line, SSK from kidney of striped snakehead Channa striatus (Bloch 1793)

Abstract

A cell line was established from striped snakehead Channa striatus kidney. The cell line, named as SSK, has been passaged for over 62 times. Growth studies at different temperatures and foetal bovine serum (FBS) concentrations revealed that SSK cells show optimum growth at 28°C in L-15 medium containing 20% FBS. The chromosome number of SSK cells was 2n=40. Partial sequencing of mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase 1 gene of the cells confirmed that the cell line originated from C. striatus. The SSK cells were primarily epithelial, as determined using immunophenotyping. The cells from SSK cell line were transfected with phrGFP II-N mammalian expression vector. The SSK cell line was stored in liquid nitrogen (-196οC) at different passages and was successfully revived after four months of storage. The cell line could be successfullyemployed for cytotoxicity studies, as revealed by neutral red assay. The cell line can be a valuable surrogate to the whole fish studies.