culture of olfactory epithelial cells from and their response to amino acid mixtures and prostaglandin F.

Olfaction is essential for the survival and reproduction of fish, as it facilitates foraging, food localization, mate selection, and breeding. The cultured olfactory epithelial cells will provide an important resource for research on how fish use olfaction to detect odor molecules in their environment. In this study, olfactory epithelial cells from were cultured to investigate their responses to various odors, amino acids, and prostaglandin F (PGF). Initially, the olfactory epithelial cells were cultured using the explant method and collagenase digestion technique. Based on observations of growth characteristics, collagenase digestion demonstrated superior growth stability and morphological features of ciliated neurons. The presence of olfactory neurospheres was identified through scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Immunofluorescence analysis revealed that most of the cells cultured were labeled with NEUN antibody. Additionally, the expression of olfactory receptors () was detected in the cultured olfactory epithelial cells using fluorescence hybridization (FISH) and reverse transcription PCR (RT-PCR). Stimulation with amino acids mixture and PGF significantly increased the number of olfactory epithelial cells labeled with pERK. RNA-seq analysis revealed that 1,276 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified following PGF stimulation, with pathways related to olfaction and reproduction being significantly enriched. Collectively, this study successfully established an model of the olfactory epithelium cells in and preliminarily investigated its response to odorant molecules, providing a valuable platform for research on fish olfactory function.