In Vitro Growth of Tick Tissues (Rhipicephalus appendiculatus Neumann, 1901)

Abstract

The tissue culture of mammalian tissues is now a well-established procedure with many applications in numerous fields of biological research. The first successful attempt to grow insect tissues in vitro was made by Goldschmidt (1915) who recorded the growth of testicular follicle cells of Samia cecropia in hanging drop cultures of hemolymph. Since then many attempts to grow insect tissues have been made but little success was achieved until Trager (1935) succeeded in growing ovarian tissue of the silkworm (Bombyx mori) in hanging drop cultures. Trager obtained survival of such cultures for up to 2 weeks. Most other trials resulted in little. If any growth and even survival was for only short periods. However during the past 4 or 5 years much progress has been made in the culture of insect tissues. This, according to Grace (1958, 1959) and Day and Grace (1959) and others has been due in part to an increase in the knowledge of the chemical and physical composition of the hemolymph. This information has served as a guide for the development of media capable of supporting the growth of insect tissues for extended periods. However up to the time Trager (1959) reported initial outgrowths of several kinds of tissue from early pupae of Glossina palpalis in Vitro cellular outgrowths comparable to those seen earlier with vertebrate tissues were obtained with only one kind of insect tissue