The Media Used in Primary Cell Cultures of Prawn Tissues: A Review and a Comparative Study

Published literature were reviewed to determine the optimal medium used for the culture of penaeid prawn cells. Of the 19 publications, 11 indicated that Leibovitz's L-15 medium was the most suitable in the preparation of primary prawn cell cultures. From the literature Penaeus monodon has an osmotic pressure of 687 (range of 687 to 750) mOsmol·kg-1. The isosmotic point for Penaeus merguiensis, that coexists in the same environments as P. monodon is 27 ppt (range 20 to 30 ppt). In culture flasks, the optimum pH for hepatopancreatocytes of Penaeus chinensis was 6.5 (range 6.0 to 7.2). Two media almost met these conditions, L-15 with Itami's salts and L-15 with Hsu's salts. Double strength L-15 did exceedingly well across a number of combinations excluding the heavy addition of extra salts. Experimentally, L-15 with Itami's salts performed as was expected from the theoretical literature analysis. Furthermore, the analysis of 2X L-15 suggested why so many authors have had partial success with this media. Established immortal cells that could be used as fusion partners with prawn cell lines were also exposed to different media to determine their tolerance levels to altered salinity and osmolarity conditions. In decreasing order of adaptability, insect, fish and mammalian cells survived in foreign media.