Observation of hemocyte phagocytosis using lepidopteran insects, which concludes in 50 minutes.

Abstract

Orthoptera; Acheta domestica, Lepidoptera; Bombyx mori, Pieris rapae, Mythimnaseparata, Spodoptera litura were examined whether these insects were suitable as sci-entific teaching materials in the immunology field for high school students. Each insect was not just measured by its amount of hemolymph and hemocyte density, but also calculated the rate of adhered hemocytes to a slide and the rate of phagocytic hemocytes. Results of these data indicate that the use of lepidopteran is suitable for high school students in terms of both handiness and easiness of observation. Inkstick particles were used as foreign bodies in this experiment. Concentration of inkstick is the important point of this observation; it should be rubbed on an inkstone approximately 10 times and 0.05ml of inkstick should be injected into the body cavity of insects. In vivo and in vitro experiments were performed to examine whether each method leads to a different result or not. In vivo experiments were observed: ink particles were injected into the body cavity of insects. And in vitro experiments were also observed: drops of insect's hemolymph on the slide glass were mixed with ink particles. The two different methods showed almost the same results, which were easily observed within 50 minutes. These methods will allow easy observation for high school students. In addition, we propose two types of teaching materials in the observation of lepidopterous hemocytes phagocytosis for 50 minutes classes.