Anglo-Antipodean Partnership and product release of SIRMu-1
ECACC is a dynamic culture collection and our Scientific Development Group are constantly searching for and accessioning new cell lines. One of our newest acquisitions, SIRMu-1, was kindly shared with us by our colleagues at Cell Bank Australia.
About SIRMu-1
SIRMu-1 is a novel monoclonal spontaneously immortalized rat Müller cell line, derived from primary Müller cells. Müller cells are the major type of glial cell of the vertebrate retina, with diverse functions including mechanical support of the neural retina, removal of neurotransmitters from the extracellular space, spatial buffering of potassium cations, storage of glycogen, and possible transfer of substrates for cellular metabolic reactions to neighbouring neurones. The SIRMu-1 cells originated from a rat mixed retinal culture made from 2 to 4 day male post-natal pups.
SIRMu-1 cells display key characteristics of primary Müller cells, including the expression of an array of well-characterized Müller cell marker proteins and genes. The SIRMu-1 cells also display characteristic cellular morphology of cultured primary adult rat Müller cells but proliferate more rapidly. They have an effectively indefinite lifespan, and a high transfection efficiency. SIRMu-1’s subculturing routine and more information on the cell line can be found here.
The SIRMu-1 cell line represents a valuable experimental tool to study roles of Müller cells in both physiological and pathological states.
CellBank Australia
CellBank Australia is a not-for-profit organisation operated by Children's Medical Research Institute in Westmead, Sydney and is Australia’s only national cell line repository. CellBank Australia holds and distributes ECACC cell lines throughout Australia and New Zealand, meaning that our Antipodean customers have direct access to the entirety of ECACC’s General Cell Collection and Hybridoma Collection.
CellBank Australia and ECACC have been in partnership since 2008, with the former providing significant local knowledge and support to ECACC and their customers. This partnership is growing stronger with every year, with sales of each other’s products increasing year-on-year.
2020 will be an exciting year for both CellBank Australia and ECACC as both collections continue to grow our product portfolios and to share openly in order to provide researchers around the world with easy access to high quality, authenticated cell lines for their research.
To keep up to date with new cell lines to the collection visit the New Cell Lines page on the website and follow us on Twitter @ECACC.
References
Kittipassorn T, Haydinger CD, Wood JPM, Mammone T, Casson RJ, Peet DJ. Characterisation of the novel spontaneously immortalised rat Müller cell line SIRMu-1. Exp Eye Res. 2019 Apr; 181:127-135.