Marine mammal cell cultures are a multifunctional instrument for acquiring knowledge about life in the world's oceans in physiological, biochemical, genetic, and ecotoxicological aspects. We succeeded in isolation, cultivation, and characterization of skin fibroblast cultures from five marine mammal species. The cells of the spotted seal (Phoca largha), the sea lion (Eumetopias jubatus), and the walrus (Odobenus rosmarus) are unpretentious to the isolation procedure. The sea otter (Enhydra lutris) fibroblasts should be isolated by trypsin disaggregation, while only mechanical disaggregation was suitable for the beluga whale (Delphinapterus leucas) cells. The cell growth parameters have been determined allowing us to find the optimal seeding density for continuous and effective cultivation. The effects of nonpathogenic algal extracts on proliferation, viability, and functional activity of marine mammal cells in vitro have been presented and discussed for the first time.
Keywords: Algal cytotoxicity; Cell culture parameters; Flow cytometry; Marine mammals; Skin fibroblast culture.