Abstract
Cetaceans are specialized marine mammals with a unique respiratory system adapted for diving behavior. Furthermore, respiratory diseases are commonly observed in these mammals. Nevertheless, much of their respiratory physiology remains unknown due to the limited supply and poor quality of their biological samples for research. In this study, we established a novel lung cell line, dLu, derived from the common bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus), which can prove useful in cetacean research, including for understanding the pathogenesis of respiratory diseases in cetaceans. The cells were cultured in a simple medium consisting of Dulbecco’s modified Eagle’s medium supplemented with 10% fetal bovine serum. The morphology of the cells was fibroblast-like. dLu was produced by transfecting the simian virus 40 large T antigen into primary cultured cells. Although dLu exhibited approximately 80 cell divisions, it was unable to achieve complete immortalization, as the cells stopped proliferating beyond this number. dLu cells expressed toll-like receptor 3 but not toll-like receptor 4. Immunostimulation with poly(I:C) altered the gene expressions of interferon beta 1 and tumor necrosis factor alpha in dLu cells. In summary, dLu established in this study is a novel cetacean cell resource that can be easily cultured and is a useful in vitro tool in cetacean research, particularly for studying host immune responses in the lungs.
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Acknowledgements
We sincerely thank the cooperation of the Taiji Fisheries Cooperative Union (Wakayama, Japan) and the Fisheries Agency of Japan for providing the specimen used in this study. We would also like to thank the staff of the Shinagawa Aquarium for their assistance in collecting the blood samples used in this study.
Funding
This work was supported by a research grant from the Strategic Research Base Development Program, “International Joint Research and Training of Young Researchers for Zoonosis Control in a Globalized World.”
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Kaede Tashiro: conceptualization, methodology, investigation, visualization, writing—original draft, writing—review and editing. Kyosuke Hikobe: methodology, investigation, formal analysis. Takao Segawa: conceptualization, methodology, investigation. Miwa Suzuki: investigation, resources. Ken Maeda: resources, methodology. Takuya Itou: conceptualization, methodology, project administration. All authors read the manuscript and approved the final submitted manuscript for publication.
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Tashiro, K., Hikobe, K., Segawa, T. et al. Establishment and characterization of a novel lung cell line derived from the common bottlenose dolphin. In Vitro Cell.Dev.Biol.-Animal 60, 98–105 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11626-023-00831-w
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11626-023-00831-w