Adipokinetic hormone enhances laminarin and bacterial lipopolysaccharide-induced activation of the prophenoloxidase cascade in the African migratory locust, Locusta migratoria
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Abstract
Lom-AKH-I enhances the activation in vivo of prophenoloxidase in the haemolymph of
the African migratory locust, Locusta migratoria, in response to challenge with laminarin.
AKH does not influence the speed or initial magnitude of the phenoloxidase response
to laminarin, but prolongs the period of activation of the enzyme in a dose-dependent
manner. Injections of preparations of bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS) do not activate
prophenoloxidase in vivo, but co-injection of Lom-AKH-I with commercial preparations
of LPS from Klebsiella pneumoniae, Escherichia coli, or Shigella flexneri (but not
one from Pseudomonas aeroginosa) results in dose-dependent increases in the levels
of phenoloxidase that persist in the haemolymph for several hours. It is argued that
the effects of AKH on phenoloxidase activation in locusts described here are, at least
in part, related directly to changes in lipid metabolism brought about by the hormone.