Bilateral project with Serbian colleagues

In the period between 20^th and 25^th May we hosted dr Nada Tokodi and dr Damjana Drobac from the Department of Biology and Ecology, Faculty of Sciences, University of Novi Sad (Serbia). They were in Gödöllő as a part of the bilateral project TÉT_16-1-2016-0176 (NKFI Hivatal) "Invasive and blooming cyanobacteria in Serbian and Hungarian waters". The main activity during their stay was field trip to two lakes which we use for examination of presence of cyanobacteria in water and cyanotoxins in water and fish tissue. We also collected fish various tissues in order to analyze them for potential histopathological effects. Beside this, Nada and Damjana joined us in our current experiments regarding gonad cryopreservation and visited our zebrafish facilities. Since we spent such a good time together, we are looking forward to hosting them again in July.

We would like to thank our dear colleagues Dr. Árpád Ferincz,  Dr. Ádám Staszny, Vera Juhás and Bence Ivanovics for their precious help and collaboration.

Start of fishing with Árpi and Ádám

Vera collecting water samples

Vera checking physicochemical properties of the water

Sampling of the fish tissue

Whole team for field work (except Nada who took the picture)

Team work

Posing during work (special friend in the background)

Special friend smelling food

With Bence in zebrafish facilities

With Bence in zebrafish facilities

Bence showing zebrafish spawning

With Zoran during cryopreservation experiment

With Zoran and Ilija during preparation for tissue dissociation

Ilija i Damjana during tissue vitrification experiment

Zoran and Damjana during checking the viability of cells

Nada and Damjana during presentation of their previous work to our colleagues from the Department

Nada and Damjana during presentation of their previous work to our colleagues from the Department

We also had some discussion after their presentation

New paper accepted in Reproduction in Domestic Animals

A new paper of our group was accepted for publication in the journal `Reproduction in Domestic Animals`.

Lujić J., Marinović Z., Kása E., Šćekić I., Urbányi B., Horváth Á. 2018. Preservation of common carp germ cells under hypothermic conditions: whole tissue vs isolated cells. Reproduction in Domestic Animals. 

Abstract

The aim of this study was to optimize the conditions for hypothermic storage of spermatogonial stem cells (SSCs) and oogonial stem cells (OSCs) of common carp Cyprinus carpio. This was conducted by storing gonadal tissue or isolated cells for 24 h under hypothermic conditions in the first experiment and by testing two different storage media (L-15 or DMEM supplemented with 10% FBS and 25 mM HEPES) and regular medium change (every 4 days) during two weeks of hypothermic storage in the second experiment. During the first 24 h, isolated cells showed no decrease in viability while cells obtained from hypothermically stored tissues displayed significantly lower viability after only 6 h (Tukey’s HSD, p < 0.01) indicating that hypothermic storage of isolated cells is superior to storing tissue pieces. The two-week trial demonstrated that storage media have a profound influence,
while regular medium exchange does not have a positive effect on cell viability. Viability of SSCs and OSCs after two weeks was approximately 40% and 25%, respectively, however survival of ~ 70% was obtained after 10 days of storage for SSCs and 7 days for OSCs. Hypothermic storage developed in this study has many practical applications during the development of surrogate broodstock technologies for common carp, but also in different carp hatcheries and for the conservation of genetic resources of closely related cyprinid species.

Master thesis defense of Nataša Cvetković

One of our students from Serbia, Nataša Cvetković, successfuly finished and defended her Master thesis `Vitification of testicular tissue of zebrafish (Danio rerio)` at the Department of Biology and Ecology of the Faculty of Sciences at the University of Novi Sad in Serbia. She spent with us more than one month working in our laboratories as well as on field in Hungary and Slovenia. We are proud on our collaboration and want to congratulate Nataša.

Ákos and Jelena together with dr Desanka Kostić and dr Nebojša Andrić were members of the defense committee, while dr Željko Popović was the supervisor.

Nataša during defense

Nataša during defense

Nataša during defense

Committee members (from the left: Željko Popović, Nebojša Andrić, Desanka Kostić, Ákos Horváth and Jelena Lujić)

Nataša with committee members

Visit of our colleague from FYR Macedonia

From May 5th and 12th we hosted dr Dijana Blažeković Dimovska from the Biotechnical Faculty (Bitola University, FYR Macedonia) at our Department. She was the guest of our team and had opportunity to work in our laboratories for one week. Dijana jond us for sperm and gonad cryopreservation experiments as well as for germ cell viability tests. It was our pleasure to host Dijana, and we are looking forward to seeing her again in the near future. 

Fish dissection with Ilija

Cryopreservation

Germ cell viability test

Hormonal induction of carp

Hormonal induction of carp

Dijana with our group

Dijana with our group