Elephant Seal photo by Marlin Harms
The Kanatous Lab was recently awarded a grant by the Department of the Navy, allowing them a chance to repeat their success in cultivating primary skeletal muscle cell lines from diving mammals, this time in Elephant seals. With their successful culture of Weddell seal (Leptonychotes weddellii) skeletal muscle cells, the Kanatous Lab was the first in the world to culture and maintain a primary skeletal muscle cell line from any diving mammal. Beginning in the summer of 2012, members of the Kanatous Lab will fly to California to collect samples with the help of colleagues from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Once the cell line is established, the Kanatous lab hopes to conduct myoglobin regulation studies similar to those conducted in the Weddell seal and C2C12 mouse cell line. Ultimately, the lab hopes to elucidate how diving mammals exercise while holding their breath in order to help develop treatment for ischemic muscle trauma and disease. Stay tuned for more news from the Kanatous Lab as our project begins this summer!
