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Development and use of an Arctic charr cell line to study antiviral responses at extremely low temperatures
Author(s) -
Semple S L,
Vo N T K,
Li A R,
Pham P H,
Bols N C,
Dixon B
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
journal of fish diseases
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.819
H-Index - 85
eISSN - 1365-2761
pISSN - 0140-7775
DOI - 10.1111/jfd.12615
Subject(s) - salvelinus , biology , immune system , arctic , zoology , intracellular , the arctic , virology , cell culture , fish <actinopterygii> , ecology , microbiology and biotechnology , genetics , trout , fishery , oceanography , geology
Arctic charr ( Salvelinus alpinus ) are the northernmost distributed freshwater fish and can grow at water temperatures as low as 0.2 °C. Other teleost species have impaired immune function at temperatures that Arctic charr thrive in, and thus, charr may maintain immune function at these temperatures. In this study, a fibroblastic cell line, named ACBA , derived from the bulbus arteriosus ( BA ) of Arctic charr was developed for use in immune studies at various temperatures. ACBA has undergone more than forty passages at 18 °C over 3 years, while showing no signs of senescence‐associated β‐galactosidase activity and producing nitric oxide. Remarkably, ACBA cells survived and maintained some mitotic activity even at 1 °C for over 3 months. At these low temperatures, ACBA also continued to produce MH class I proteins. After challenge with poly I:C, only antiviral Mx proteins were induced while MH proteins remained constant. When exposed to live viruses, ACBA was shown to permit viral infection and replication of IPNV , VHSV IV a and CSV at 14 °C. Yet at the preferred temperature of 4 °C, only VHSV IV a was shown to replicate within ACBA . This study provides evidence that Arctic charr cells can maintain immune function while also resisting infection with intracellular pathogens at low temperatures.