A bank for storing cells of giant pandas has been built in Chengdu Giant Panda Propagation and Research Center in southwest China's Sichuan Province, according to the center.

The bank, the largest of its kind in the world, is meant to rescue giant panda gene resources from extinction, said Hou Rong, deputy head of Sichuan Provincial Key Lab for Propagation and Protection of Endangered Animal Species.

"As an endangered large mammal that is unique to China, the giant panda has a low capability of propagation and a falling survival rate among its offspring due to increasing inbreeding," said Hou, who is also director of Chengdu Giant Panda Propagation and Research Center.

According to Hou, the bank, constructed with financial support from the Sichuan Provincial Youth Fund for Science and Technology, keeps epithelial fibroblast obtained from 26 giant pandas, including five that were already dead.

Hou vowed to cooperate with relevant departments and to enlarge the number of samples, by freezing somatic cells of all giant pandas in captivity across China. Hou also plans to sponsor research about the freezing the ovary of female giant pandas.

(Xinhua News Agency September 2, 2004)