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The Polyvinyl Alcohol Sponge Model Implantation
Published on: April 18, 2012
The life and death of sponge cells
Detmer Sipkema1, Ambrosius P L Snijders, Carin G P H Schroën
1Food and Bioprocess Engineering Group, Wageningen University, PO Box 8129, 6700 EV Wageningen, The Netherlands. detmer.sipkema@wur.nl
Abstract:
Cell viability is an essential touchstone in the study of the effect of medium components on cell physiology. We developed a flow-cytometric assay to determine sponge-cell viability, based on the combined use of fluorescein diacetate (FDA) and propidium iodide (PI). Cell fluorescence measurements based on incubation of cells with FDA or PI resulted in a useful and reproducible estimate of the viability of primary sponge-cell cultures. We studied the effects of temperature, ammonium, and the fungicide amphotericin B on the viability of a primary-cell culture from the marine sponge Suberites domuncula using the aforementioned flow-cytometric assay. S. domuncula cells die rapidly at a temperature of >or=22 degrees C, but they are insensitive to ammonium concentrations of up to 25 mM. Amphotericin B, which is frequently used in sponge-cell culture media, was found to be toxic to S. domuncula cells.
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