Establishing reptile tissue culture cell lines:
- Tissue culture cell lines are an invaluable resource for infectious disease discovery and characterization and comparative biomedical research. While cell lines from domestic species are readily available, cell lines from exotic and wildlife species – and particularly reptiles – are greatly limited.
- One of the initiatives of our laboratory is to establish a broad panel of reptile cell lines for use from diverse hosts as a tool to improve reptile research.
- To date, cell lines have been established from a variety of snake, lizard, chelonian, and crocodilian hosts and conditions for primary and continuous growth of reptile cells in vitro have been established.
- Currently established cell lines are listed below. Please contact Dr. Robert Ossiboff (rossiboff@ufl.edu) for more information on cell line availability.
Available Cell Lines
Cell Line Information | ||
---|---|---|
Snake Cell Lines | ||
Boid | Amethystine Python (Simalia amethistina) | Spleen |
Boa Constrictor (Boa imperator) | Heart, Kidney, Lung, Spleen, Thymus | |
Burmese Python (Python bivittatus) | Heart | |
Carpet Python (Morelia spilota) | Lung | |
Diamond Python (Morelia spilota spilota) | Heart | |
Colubrid | Corn Snake (Pantherophis guttatus) | Heart, Kidney, Lung |
Smooth Green Snake (Opheodrys vernalis) | Kidney, Lung | |
Yellowtail Cribo (Drymarchon corais) | Lung, Spleen | |
Viperid | Pygmy Rattlesnake (Sistrurus miliarus) | Kidney |
Venezuelan Rattlesnake (Crotalus durissus) | Heart, Spleen | |
Lizard Cell Lines | ||
Brown Anole (Anolis sagrei) | Kidney, Lung | |
Knight Anole (Anolis equestris) | Kidney | |
Leopard Gecko (Eublepharis macularius) | Chromatophoroma, Lung | |
Chelonian Cell Lines | ||
Tortoise | Galapagos Tortoise (Chelonoidis nigra) | Heart, Liver, Lung, Spleen |
Gopher Tortoise (Gopherus polyphemus) | Heart, Kidney, Spleen | |
Indian Star Tortoise (Geochelone elegans) | Spleen | |
Turtle | Diamondback Terrapin (Malaclemys terrapin) | Kidney, Lung |
Florida Softshell Turtle (Apalone ferox) | Lung | |
Yellow-bellied Slider (Trachemys scripta scripta) | Heart | |
Crocodilian Cell Lines | ||
American Alligator (Alligator missippiensis) | Mass (fibroblast) | |
Broad-snouted Caiman (Caiman latirostrus) | Heart | |
Chinese Alligator (Alligator sinensis) | Heart, Lung, Spleen | |
Saltwater Crocodile (Crocodylus porosus) | Heart, Lung, Skeletal Muscle |
Funding for cell line generation and characterization provided in part by
a grant from the Morris Animal Foundation