Factors Affecting Primary Cultures of Abalone Haliotis discus hannai Ovary-dissociated Cells and General Culture Aspects

We investigated factors affecting primary cultures of Pacific abalone Haliotis discus hannai ovary-dissociated cells to identify general aspects of their early-phase culture. Ninety-seven cell populations derived from 30 individuals were cultured in different media with varying compositions of medium supplements, and initial attachment, subculture, and survival for ${\geq}10$ weeks were assessed according to medium composition and individual. We also examined the time required for subculture and the rate of cell death according to both culturing period and passage number within 10 weeks. A lack of fetal bovine serum (FBS) and hemolymph significantly inhibited the growth of cultured cells, while we detected no significant effect of medium composition on initial cell attachment. Through data reallocation, with the omission of data from cell populations cultured in FBS-free and hemolymph-free media, we showed that growth inhibition was also affected by individual differences among the abalones used. During the culture, we observed four different types of cell morphology. Moreover, considerable time was required for subculture-18.4 and 19.5 days for first and second subcultures, respectively-and cell death did not occur within 30 days or for passage 0. Our results will provide valuable information for developing universal cell culturing guidelines in abalone species and suggest the feasibility of culturing abalone ovary-dissociated cells.