Physiological evidence of integrin-antibody reactive proteins influencing the innate cellular immune responses of larval Galleria mellonella hemocytes.

Larval Galleria mellonella (L.) hemocytes form microaggregates in response to stimulation by Gram-positive bacteria. Hemocyte adhesion to foreign materials is mediated by the cAMP/ protein kinase A pathway and the β-subunit of cholera toxin using a cAMP-independent mechanism.

Human ribosomal protein L9 is a Bax suppressor that promotes cell survival in yeast.

The identification of a human ribosomal protein L9 (hRPL9) cDNA as a sequence capable of suppressing the lethal effects of heterologously expressed murine Bax in yeast led us to investigate its antiapoptotic potential. Using growth and viability assays, we show that yeast cells heterologously expressing hRPL9 are resistant to the growth inhibitory and lethal effects of exogenously supplied copper, indicating that it has pro-survival properties. To explore potential mechanisms, we used yeast mutants defective in all three types of programmed cell death (apoptosis, necrosis, and autophagy).

The human septin7 and the yeast CDC10 septin prevent Bax and copper mediated cell death in yeast.

The mechanisms of programmed cell death activate genetically encoded intracellular programs in a controlled manner, the most common form being apoptosis. Apoptosis is carried out through a cascade of caspase mediated proteolytic cleavages initiated by the oligomerization of Bax, a cardinal regulator of mitochondrial-mediated apoptosis. Heterologous expression of Bax in yeast causes cell death that shares a number of similarities to processes that occur in mammalian apoptosis.

Hemocyte-hemocyte adhesion and nodulation reactions of the greater wax moth, Galleria mellonella are influenced by cholera toxin and its B-subunit.

Nodulation, the lepidopteran insect immune response to large numbers of microbes in the blood (hemolymph) consists of the coordination of the blood cell (hemocyte) types the granular cells and plasmatocytes in terms of granular cell-bacteria adhesion and hemocyte-hemocyte adhesion (microaggregation). Hemocyte-microbe adhesion is influenced by the secondary messenger, cAMP, and cAMP-dependent protein kinase A. In the present study, cholera toxin, an AB5 protein known to indirectly stimulate adenylate cyclase, is used to examine the hemocyte responses to glass, bacteria and hemocyte-hemocyte microaggregates.

Cell lines, Md108 and Md66, from the hemocytes of Malacosoma disstria (Lepidoptera) display aspects of plasma-free innate non-self activities.

The innate non-self response systems of the deciduous tree pest, the forest tent caterpillar, Malacosoma disstria has been documented by us in terms of in vitro and in vivo reactions towards the Gram-positive nonpathogenic bacterium, Bacillus subtilis and Gram-negative pathogenic microbe, Xenorhabdus nematophila and their respective surface antigens, lipopoteichoic acids (LTA) and lipopolysaccharides (LPS). These studies, often conducted in whole and diluted hemolymph, preclude examination of plasma-free cellular (hemocyte) responses. Plasma-free hemocytes as primary cultures are difficult to obtain.