Apoptosis of tiger shrimp (Penaeus monodon) haemocytes induced by Escherichia coli lipopolysaccharide

This study was aimed at investigating the toxicity mechanism of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) on Penaeus monodon haemocytes at a cellular level. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, nitric oxide (NO) production, non-specific esterase activity, cytoplasmic free-Ca2 + (CF-Ca2 +) concentration, DNA damaged cell ratio and apoptotic cell ratio of in vitro LPS-treated haemocytes were measured by flow cytometry. Two concentrations of Escherichia coli LPS (5 and 10 μg mL− 1) were used. Results showed that ROS production, NO production and CF-Ca2 + concentration were significantly induced in the LPS-treated haemocytes. Ratio of DNA damaged cell and apoptotic cell increased caused by LPS, while esterase activity increased at the initial 60 min and dropped later. The initial increase in esterase activity suggested that LPS activated the release of esterase, and the later decrease might result from apoptosis. These results indicated that LPS would induce oxidative stress on shrimp haemocytes, and cause Ca2 + release, DNA damage and subsequently cell apoptosis. This process of ROS/RNS-induced Ca2 +-mediated apoptosis might be one of the toxicity mechanisms of LPS on shrimp haemocytes.