Acid phosphatase activity in the hemolymph, hemocytes, fat body and salivary glands during larval and prepupal development in Calliphora erythrocephala (Diptera: Calliphoridae)

The possibility of using xenogeneic phagocytes in wound treatment

Metamorphosis in the insect larva is associated with disintegration, engulf and digestion of larval tissues. These processes are accompanied by a significant shift in physiological parameters like high activity of hydrolytic enzymes and decrease of pH. In the way, the metamorphosing larva resembles the processes occurring in the wound at the stage of inflammation. Based on this thesis, we put forward the idea of the possibility of using insect phagocytes in the wound treatment. The search for a suitable insect cell line and the study of its properties were the purpose of the work. The abilities of insect phagocytes to retain viability and functional activity under conditions physiological for humans were also investigated. We found that blue blowfly Calliphora vicina larvae had histolysocytes, a specialized population of professional phagocytes involved in the histolysis. In vitro, histolysocytes possess high phagocytic activity to fragments of vertebrate soft tissues and debris. These cells retain viability and functional activity for a long time under conditions that are physiological for vertebrate cells. Moreover histolysocytes can realize the humoral control over the bacteria through the synthesis of antimicrobial peptides. So histolysocytes have the potential to be used as xenogeneic phagocytes in the wound treatment. The data obtained allow proceeding to experiments on laboratory animals for studying the effect of such therapy on the wound healing process.

Identification of the secreted watery saliva proteins of the rice brown planthopper, Nilaparvata lugens (Stål) by transcriptome and Shotgun LC-MS/MS approach

The rice brown planthopper, Nilaparvata lugens (Stål), a major rice insect pest in Asia, is a vascular bundle-feeder that ejects gelling and watery saliva during the feeding process. Although major proteins in the salivary glands of N. lugens have been identified using 2D PAGE, very little is known about the secreted saliva of this insect. In this study, we identified the major proteins in the secreted watery saliva of N. lugens, via collecting from a sucrose diet that adult planthoppers had fed upon through a membrane of stretched parafilm, and using shotgun LC-MS/MS analysis with reference to transcriptome database of salivary glands of N. lugens. A total of 107 proteins were identified in the watery saliva of N. lugens, over 80% of which showed significant similarity to known proteins. When annotated by the Blast2GO suite, 29 proteins had catalytic activity and 24 proteins were binding proteins. The saliva enzymes included oxidoreductases, hydrolases, phosphatases, peptidases (proteases), kinases, transferases, and lyases. Binding proteins in N. lugens watery saliva included ATP-binding, lipophorin, calcium-binding, actin-binding and DNA-, RNA-, and chromatin-binding proteins. Other non-enzymatic proteins, such as ubiquitins, heat shock proteins, ribosomal proteins, and immunoglobulin proteins were also found in N. lugens watery saliva. This is the first study to identify, characterize and list the proteins in watery saliva of N. lugens, which might be involved in planthopper-rice interactions.

Storaged products and presence of acid phosphatase in fat body cells at pre-pupal worker stage of Apis mellifera Linnaeus, 1758 (Hymenoptera, Apidae)

Fat body cells or throphocytes of individuals during beginning of pupation (pre-pupae) of Apis mellifera were collected and studied by routine and cytochemical preparations for transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The results showed that the trophocytes present large reserves of lipids, proteins, and glycogen. Imidazole osmium treatment revealed that lipids are deposited as droplets in the cytoplasm and also within protein granules. Thiery's reaction showed the presence of glycogen inside protein granules. An acid phosphatase reaction was performed to verify the role of this enzyme in the mobilization of stored reserves during metamorphosis. Positive reaction for acid phosphatase was detected at larger protein granules, at the periphery of the large lipid droplets, and free in the cytoplasm. The contents of protein, lipid and glycogen are stored in the trophocytes at larval phase to be used during metamorphosis. The acid phosphatase present in the products stored might be responsible for their metabolization, while acid phosphatase free in cytoplasm might actuates in the trophocytes histolysis that occurs during metamorphosis for energy production.