An in vitro culture system for crayfish organs.

Organs of crayfishes--mainly integument of Astacus leptodactylus--have been kept in an in vitro culture of several days. The medium consists of 2 parts of van Harreveld saline and one part of horse serum, supplemented with antibiotics for long term cultures. This medium is very similar to the Astacus hemolymph in its ionic content, the pH, the osmolarity, the protein concentration and the cholesterol content. The glucose concentration is somewhat higher and there are differences in the nitrogen excretory end products. Integument of Astacus is able to synthesize protein, RNA and DNA in vitro for several days. Ecdysone is converted to 20-OH-ecdysone by the integument under in vitro conditions.