Investigating the establishment of primary cultures of hemocytes from Mytilus edulis

Anthropogenic influences on the environment have been become a focal point for many social and political endeavors. With an ever-increasing rate of new contaminants being introduced into the environment every year, regulatory policies have begun to shift to prevention rather than mitigation. However, current in vivo testing strategies, in addition to ethical considerations, are too expensive and time consuming to adequately screen potential contaminants within a realistic timeframe. As a result, in vitro testing on cell cultures has been identified as an ideal alternative testing strategy for emerging contaminants. In the context of ecotoxicology, in vitro testing has had limited use particularly with marine invertebrates like the marine mussel Mytilus edulis mainly due to difficulties in establishing longer term cell cultures and cell lines. The aim of this study was to define an optimal technique (extraction and maintenance) for establishing a primary cell culture on M. edulis hemocytes that could be used for screening contaminants.