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 <i>Mizuhopecten yessoensis</i> and the mussel <i>Mytilus trossulus</i>). 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<i> in vitro</i> 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.