Isolation of melanized cell lines with stable phenotypes from a goldfish erythrophoroma cell line and cryopreservation of these cells by the use of autologous serum.

Cell lines with stable melanized phenotypes were isolated from a goldfish erythrophoroma cell line. These cell lines include several interesting phenotypes: a) reversible dedifferentiation and redifferentiation in response to withdrawal and addition of fish serum; b) irreversible dedifferentiation in response to withdrawal of fish serum; c) independence on fish serum for melanization; d) dependence on fish serum for growth; and e) pigment aggregation in response to epinephrine. We also report that cryopreservation of all the melanized cell lines, but not any of the unmelanized cell lines, requires the presence of fish serum. This raises the possibility that there may be advantages to use autologous serum for the cryopreservation of sensitive cell lines.