Create pearl nacre by cell culture

Creating pearl nacre from culturing in vitro mussel cells . That's the bold idea of ​​a young research group at HCMC University of Science.

On December 17, a research group at Ho Chi Minh City University of Science has just registered with the Department of Science and Technology (Ho Chi Minh City Science and Technology) to study: "The first step in testing the culture in test tubes (in vitro) epithelial cells create nacre of freshwater mussel and facilitate nacre secretion ".

Pham Van Phuc in his presentation on the topic "Testing of creating" pearl "crystals by culturing freshwater epithelial cells of in vitro mussel ", on December 17. (Photo: H.Cat)

According to Mr. Pham Van Phuc, chairman of the project, after that, the broad objective of the project is to create pearl beads by cultivating mussels' shell cells, changing the color of pearl beads by adding them to the culture medium. substances that can create color.

Previously, pearls were collected from sons in rivers, lakes, ponds (freshwater mussels) or in the sea (saltwater mussels). The acquisition of this natural word does not have to be costly and costly to raise pearls. However, the number of pearls obtained in the wild is very low, the quality of the pearls and its economic efficiency are not high. Meanwhile, the cultivation of artificial pearls combined with implantation techniques, cell culture will make economic efficiency improved, shortening the time of making pearls. The number of gems created is more.

The drawback of cultivating artificial pearls is highly dependent on natural and external conditions, while there is still a large proportion of pearl beads created from this method not beautiful.

According to the evaluation of the Scientific Council established by Ho Chi Minh City Department of Science and Technology, including Assoc. Prof. Dr. Hoang Duc Dat - Institute of Tropical Biology, TS-BS Tran Cong Toai - Training and Training Center Health . this is a basic research-oriented topic.

Pearls are formed inside the body of krill (layer 2 shell).This is a reflex to heal krill wounds.They secrete substances that cover the object with calcium carbonate layers (CaCO ₃ ) in the form of aragonite and calcium minerals, which are bound together by a keratin-like organic substance called conchiolin.The combination of calcium carbonate and conchiolin is called nacre.The process of creating enveloping nacre layers over many years and creating a jewel when there is a typical stimulus is usually organic matter, parasites, or even damage that moves the layer. the membrane goes to another part of the animal's body.

The topic aims to determine the possibility of nacre or not being able to create nacre, an important step in creating pearls by in vitro cell culture.

The superiority of biotechnology is that all cells can be cultured, including pearl cells. If the team found the mechanism of nacre by culturing cells in vitro, in fact, it could create hundreds of completely identical pearls.

In addition, it is possible to create the color of pearls as desired by applying nacre to the nucleus when cultivating with substances that can form color complexes with nacre.

This is a research topic under the " Young Science and Technology Incubator " program organized by Ho Chi Minh City Youth Union and Ho Chi Minh City Department of Science and Technology.

For a topic under the " Nursery . " program, the maximum funding is 80 million VND.

H. Cat