schistosomiasis is the second most common parasitic cause of death, after malaria. biomphalaria glabrata is a fresh water snail with medical importance since it is the intermediate host of schistosoma mansoni, an agent of schistosomiasis. the internal defense system of b. glabrata snails is mostly represented by circulating elements of the hemolymph, hemocytes, which are important factors in fi...

As in many other organisms, the blood of Drosophila consists of several types of hemocytes, which originate from the mesoderm. By lineage analyses of transplanted cells, we specified two separate anlagen that give rise to different populations of hemocytes: embryonic hemocytes and lymph gland hemocytes. The anlage of the embryonic hemocytes is restricted to a region within the head mesoderm bet...

The in vitro effects of the Perkinsus marinus serine protease on the intracellular survival of Vibrio vulnificus in oyster hemocytes were examined by using a time-course gentamicin internalization assay. Results showed that protease-treated hemocytes were initially slower to internalize V. vulnificus than untreated hemocytes. After 1 h, the elimination of V. vulnificus by treated hemocytes was ...

Several important functions have been attributed to hemocytes in arthropoda. They have been reported to be involved in homeostasis (Bang, 1971), storage of glycogen and other nutrients (Johnston et al., 1973). The important role of hemocytes in defense mechanism has been recognized by many authors (Durilant, 1985; Soderhall and Cerenius, 1992). Due to this reasons the study of hemocytes is the ...

The Pacific oyster Crassostrea gigas is a sessile bivalve mollusc whose homeostasis relies, at least partially, upon cells circulating in hemolymph and referred to as hemocytes. Oyster's hemocytes have been reported to produce reactive oxygen species (ROS), even in absence of stimulation. Although ROS production in bivalve molluscs is mostly studied for its defence involvement, ROS may also be ...

Experiments were conducted to determine the ability of the protistan parasite, Perkinsus marinus, to inhibit chemiluminescence of hemocytes from the eastern oyster, Crassostrea virginica. Luminol-enhanced chemiluminescence (CL) was used to measure the production of reactive oxygen intermediates (ROI) generated by oyster hemocytes using zymosan as a stimulant. To determine whether P. marinus sup...

Introduction Hemocytes are an essential component of the invertebrate innate immune system (Strand 2008). Their close similarities to vertebrate white blood cells enable their use as a tractable model for immunological research. The quantification of hemocytes in the hemolymph (invertebrate blood) is one way of assessing the efficacy of the immune response because the absolute number of hemocyt...

The immunity provided by ascidian hemocytes represents one prototype of innate immune function in vertebrates. However, there are currently no molecular markers of ascidian hemocytes. We accumulated a large number of ESTs of cDNAs derived from hemocytes of Ciona intestinalis, a cosmopolitan species of ascidian. By comparing these ESTs with those derived from other tissues and developmental stag...

Many physiological functions in arthropoda are carried out in an orderly manner with the help of their body fluids. The number of hemocytes investigated differs according to the subtexon of Arthropoda. The techniques and procedure for preparations, fixation and staining techniques have impact on the reaction of hemocytes; as a consequence the characteristics on which the nomenclature of hemocyt...

Sheep red blood cells (SRBCs) rapidly aggregated when injected into the blood (hemolymph) of living silkworms. SRBCs also rapidly aggregated when incubated with hemolymph in vitro. SRBCs did not aggregate when incubated with single hemolymph components, hemocytes and cell-free plasma separated by centrifugation, whereas incubation with the mixture of components induced SRBC aggregation, suggest...