Cnidarian Primary Cell Culture as a Tool to Investigate the Effect of Thermal Stress at Cellular Level.

In the context of global change, symbiotic cnidarians are largely affected by seawater temperature elevation leading to symbiosis breakdown. This process, also called bleaching, is triggered by the dysfunction of the symbiont photosystems causing an oxidative stress and cell death to both symbiont and host cells. In our study, we wanted to elucidate the intrinsic capacity of isolated animal cells to deal with thermal stress in the absence of symbiont. In that aim, we have characterized an animal primary cell culture form regenerating tentacles of the temperate sea anemone Anemonia viridis. We first compared the potential of whole tissue tentacle or separated epidermal or gastrodermal monolayers as tissue sources to settle animal cell cultures. Interestingly, only isolated cells extracted from whole tentacles allowed establishing a viable and proliferative primary cell culture throughout 31 days. The analysis of the expression of tissue-specific and pluripotency markers defined cultivated cells as differentiated cells with gastrodermal origin. The characterization of the animal primary cell culture allowed us to submit the obtained gastrodermal cells to hyperthermal stress (+ 5 and + 8 °C) during 1 and 7 days. Though cell viability was not affected at both hyperthermal stress conditions, cell growth drastically decreased. In addition, only a + 8 °C hyperthermia induced a transient increase of antioxidant defences at 1 day but no ubiquitin or carbonylation protein damages. These results demonstrated an intrinsic resistance of cnidarian gastrodermal cells to hyperthermal stress and then confirmed the role of symbionts in the hyperthermia sensitivity leading to bleaching.

[Protein and energy value of spiruline blue algae supplemented by amino acids: digestive and metabolic utilization by the growing rat]. / Valeur proteique et energetique des algues bleues spirulines supplementees en acides amines: utizisation digestive et metabolique par le rat en croissance

Protein and energy value of 6 samples of "Spirulina" was studied on growing rats in 1972 and 1973. Sample RL 1(Spirulina platensis, originating from Tchad) was grown in artifical conditions in a laboratory. Others samples (Spirulina maxima) were grown in the solar evaporator near Mexico, washed and dried either on heated rollers (MR8, MR13) or by spraying (MA 7, MA10). Sample MA10 D corresponds to sample MA10, bleached by ethanol plus acetone (Baron, 1975). Each Spirulina sample was the only protein source of balanced, starch diets. The diets were supplemented in essential amino acids (E.A.A.) according to the requirements of growing rats (table 1). The ratios [(digestible nitrogen/metabolisable energy (EM] of the Spirulina diets were similar to that of the control diets containing herring meal. The diets were fed to groups of 15 to 17 growing rats. Energy and nitrogen balances were established by the comparative slaughter technique. Blood and muscle samples were taken at slaughter for the determination of free amino acids levels.