Impact of smolt production strategy on vertebral growth and mineralisation during smoltification and the early seawater phase in Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar, L.)

Contains fulltext : 35736.pdf ( ) (Open Access)This study investigates the effect of different smolt production strategies on vertebral morphology (radiology), composition (mineral content) and mechanical strength (load-deformation testing) in Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar). Rapid-growing underyearling (0+) smolt were compared with slower-growing yearling (1+) smolt and a reference group of wild smolt (w). The underyearling and yearling smolt were transferred to seawater in October 2002 and May 2003, respectively. The underyearling smolt were reared under continuous light and the yearling smolt under natural light during the first twelve weeks in seawater, at ambient temperatures. Thus, the underyearling smolt hit seawater at 13[no-break space][deg]C and were reared at 10-13[no-break space][deg]C during the early seawater phase, whereas the yearling smolt hit seawater at 7[no-break space][deg]C and were reared at 7-10[no-break space][deg]C during the early seawater phase. All groups displayed increased longitudinal growth (up to 9% increase in relative length) of the caudal vertebrae during parr-smolt transformation. However, at transfer to seawater, the underyearling smolt had significantly lower vertebral mineral content (0+ 44%, 1+ 47%, w 50%) and higher incidence of deformed vertebrae (0+ 1.5%, 1+ 0%, w 0%), and at twelve weeks after transfer to seawater significantly lower vertebral mineral content (0+ 36%, 1+ 41%, w 43%), yield-load (0+ 6492[no-break space]g, 1+ 8797[no-break space]g, w 9150[no-break space]g) and stiffness (0+ 7578[no-break space]g/mm, 1+ 15,161[no-break space]g/mm, w 20,523[no-break space]g/mm), and significantly higher incidence of deformed vertebrae (0+ 2.5%, 1+ 0.3%, w 0%). There was a significant correlation between the mineral content and mechanical properties of the vertebrae. The underyearling smolt had significantly elevated plasma concentrations of total Ca, and P and Ca2+ during the parr-smolt transformation and in the early seawater phase.The results show that underyearling smolt may have an increased risk of developing vertebral deformities. It is possible that this risk can be reduced by postponing the start of the short-day treatment. This will reduce the temperature during smoltification, the temperature and daylength during the early seawater phase, and increase the age at smoltification

Effects of heat treatment and concentration of fish serum on cell growth in adhesion culture of Chinese hamster ovary cells

The effects of heat treatment and concentration of fish serum (FS) on cell growth and human granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (hGM-CSF) production in an adhesion culture of recombinant Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells, DR1000L4N, were investigated. The addition of heat treated FS instead of non-heat-treated FS improved cell growth in terms of cell density, which reached 60% that in 10% fetal calf serum (FCS)-containing medium (FCS medium). A decrease in FS concentration from 10 to 1.25% markedly increased cell density, which was 79% that in 10% FCS medium. The combination of heat treatment at 56 °C and the addition of FS at a low concentration (1.25%) showed an additive effect on cell growth and resulted in the same cell density as that in 10% FCS medium, whereas the hGM-CSF concentration in the culture using FS-containing medium (FS medium) was approximately 50% that in 10% FCS medium. The total lipid concentration in FS was more than three fold that in FCS. The effect of decreasing FS concentration on cell growth may be due to the low lipid concentration in FS medium, because addition of the lipids extracted from FS to 10% FCS and 1.25% FS media markedly decreased cell density. Consequently, the addition of heat-treated FS at low concentrations to medium may be useful for the growth of CHO cells without FCS

GH overexpression causes muscle hypertrophy independent from local IGF-I in a zebrafish transgenic model

The aim of the present study was to analyse the morphology of white skeletal muscle in males and females from the GH-transgenic zebrafish(Danio rerio) lineage F0104, comparing the expression of genes related to the somatotrophic axis and myogenesis. Histological analysis demonstrated that transgenic fish presented enhanced muscle hypertrophy when compared to non-transgenic fish, with transgenic females being more hypertrophic than transgenic males. The expression of genes related to muscle growth revealed that transgenic hypertrophy is independent from local induction of insulin-like growth factor 1 gene (igf1). In addition, transgenic males exhibited significant induction of myogenin gene (myog) expression, indicating that myog may mediate hypertrophic growth in zebrafish males overexpressing GH. Induction of the a-actin gene (acta1) in males, independently from transgenesis, also was observed. There were no significant differences in total protein content from the muscle. Our results show that muscle hypertrophy is independent from muscle igf1, and is likely to be a direct effect of excess circulating GH and/or IGF1 in this transgenic zebrafish lineage