Comparative morphological analysis of <i>in vitro </i>cultured hemocytes from two species of bivalve mollusks
We analyzed the morphology of cultured hemocytes from two species of bivalve mollusks (the scallop Mizuhopecten yessoensis and the mussel Mytilus trossulus). Interspecific comparison of single cells and 2-, 3-cell aggregates revealed significant differences in some of the investigated cell parameters, suggesting that these features of hemocyte morphology in vitro are species- specific. The present findings indicate that cultured cells can be efficiently characterized by quantitative parameters related to the cell shape such as the size of convex hull and cell-bounding circle, the cell area, and the density of two-dimensional cell image.