Laboratory of Cell Cultures

Laboratory Lead— Alexander V. Slita, PhD

Phone: +7 (812) 346–07–48

E-mail: slita@influenza.spb.ru

The laboratory of Cell Cultures was organized in the early years of RII. One of the principal founders and leads of the laboratory was Prof. Anna Sominina.

Primary Activities:

• Supplying cell cultures to research and production facilities of RII and other institutions and organizations around Russia and CIS.
• Large–scale growing of cell cultures to obtain significant masses of virus
• Maintaining cell lines stored in liquid nitrogen
• Controlling quality and growth properties of culture mediums and sera used for cell cultivation
• Controlling contamination of cell lines and culture medium components with exogenic viruses, microplasms and L–form bacteria
• Decontaminating cell lines
• Expanding the amount of human cell lines used in to study influenza A reproduction
• Developing new methods and techniques to examine antiviral efficacy of drugs through measuring proliferation activity and apoptosis induction in cells infected with influenza A virus.

The laboratory maintains a vast Human and Animal Cell Lines Collection for Virology Research, which is a part of The Russian Collection of Cell Cultures and European Collection of Cell Cultures (ECACC) and complies with all adequate regulations. The collections include 10 diploid fibroblasts of human embryo’s lung and 50 transfer cell cultures.

The laboratory takes part in the international project on improving influenza surveillance in Russia, supplying RII research units and Regional Base Labs with MDCK cell cultures, adapted to cultivation with lowered level of fetal serum(the cells are used for virus isolation and measuring antiviral activity of drugs and immunogenicity of vaccines in microneutralization assays).

Selected Publications:

• T. D. Smirnova, I. K. Kusnetsova, T. M. Gudkova. Interaction of H3N2 influenza virus with lymphoblastic human cells. International Conference «Preparedness to ihe pandemic – an international outlook». March 15-17, 2007. Saint-Peterburg, Russia, p. 47-48
• T. D. Smirnova, E.M. Eropkina, M.Yu. Eropkin, G. Rizhak Study of changes in functional properties of cultivated human fibroblasts when subjected to biologically active preparations. Cell Cutures(Kletochniye Kulturi) Bulletin. 2007;22:26–33
• T. D. Smirnova, E.M. Eropkina, G. Rizhak. Cell Cultures as Models for Determining Biological Activity of Geroprotective Peptides. Cell Cutures(Kletochniye Kulturi) Bulletin. 2007;22:22–25
• D.Y. Andreev, V.L. Sedov, T.D. Smirnova, B.A. Paramonov, A.A. Sominina, O.I. Kiselev, L.V. Lebedev. Interactive Cardio Vascular and Thoracic Surgery. Abstracts for The European Society for Cardiovascular Surgery 55th International Congress, St. Peterburg, Russian Federation, May 11-12, 2006.
• O.I.Kiselev, E.M. Eropkina, T.D. Smirnova, M.Iu. Eropkin, E.V. Il'inskaia, V.P. Sukhinin, A.P. Prochukhanova, V.V. Zarubaev. Evaluation of Metabolic Parameters in vitro as a Model for Testing the Cytotoxicity of Antiviral Drugs. Eksp Klin Farmakol. 2006 Jan-Feb;69(1):65–70