The Effect of Tyre and Road Wear Particles on the Terrestrial Isopod .

(1) Car tyre microplastic particles (TMPs) significantly contribute to global microplastic pollution, with an estimated annual production of 6 million tonnes. However, the impact of TMPs, particularly tyre and road wear particles (TRWPs), resulting from tyre abrasion on the road on terrestrial organisms, is poorly understood. This study investigated the effects of TMPs and TRWPs on the growth, immune response, behaviour, and cognition of the woodlouse over 30 days; (2) TMPs and TRWPs were mixed together in the first experiment and provided at different concentrations of 1.

Apis mellifera ligustica, Spinola 1806 as bioindicator for detecting environmental contamination: a preliminary study of heavy metal pollution in Trieste, Italy.

Honeybees have become important tools for the ecotoxicological assessment of soil, water and air metal contamination due to their extraordinary capacity to bioaccumulate toxic metals from the environment. The level of heavy metal pollution in the Trieste city was monitored using foraging bees of Apis mellifera ligustica from hives owned by beekeepers in two sites strategically located in the suburban industrial area and urban ones chosen as control. The metal concentration in foraging bees was determined by inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry.

Immune challenges trigger cellular and humoral responses in adults of Pterostichus melas italicus (Coleoptera, Carabidae).

The present study focuses on the ability of Pterostichus melas italicus Dejean to mount cellular and humoral immune responses against invading pathogens. Ultrastructural analyses revealed the presence of five morphologically distinct types of hemocytes: prohemocytes, plasmatocytes, granulocytes, oenocytoids and macrophage-like cells. Differential hemocyte counts showed that plasmatocytes and granulocytes were the most abundant circulating cell types and plasmatocytes exhibited phagocytic activity following the latex bead immune challenge.

Mediterranean mussel gene expression profile induced by okadaic acid exposure.

Seasonal seawater temperature increases define optimal growth conditions for Dinoflagellate species which can reach high concentrations in water column and also in filter-feeding organisms like Mytilus galloprovincialis. Commonly produced by Dinophysis and Prorocentrum spp., okadaic acid (OA) and its analogues are responsible for the Diarrheic Shellfish Poisoning (DSP) syndrome in humans.

Circulating hemocytes from larvae and adults of Carabus (Chaetocarabus) lefebvrei Dejean 1826 (Coleoptera, Carabidae): cell types and their role in phagocytosis after in vivo artificial non-self-challenge.

Carabus lefebvrei Dejean 1826 is an helicophagous Italian endemic ground beetle that lives in central and south Apennines mountain forests, from lower altitudes to about 1500 m. In ground beetles, no morphofunctional data about immune system is available, even though they are well known both taxonomically and ecologically and they have been often used as indicators of the habitat quality due to their specificity to certain habitat types. In the current investigation the cellular population in the hemolymph of adult and third instar larvae of C.

Ultrastructural and functional characterization of circulating hemocytes from the freshwater crayfish Astacus leptodactylus: cell types and their role after in vivo artificial non-self challenge.

The freshwater crayfish Astacus leptodactylus (Eschscholtz, 1823) is an important aquacultured decapod species as well as an invasive species in some European countries. In the current investigation we characterized the different classes of circulating blood cells in A. leptodactylus by means of light and electron microscopy analysis and we explored their reaction to different latex beads particles in vivo by total and differential cell counts at 0.