Antagonistic effect of juvenile hormone on hemocyte-spreading behavior of Spodoptera exigua in response to an insect cytokine and its putative membrane action

Juvenile hormone (JH) acts on membrane of follicle cells to induce ovarian patency for vitellogenesis, though it regulates various other physiological processes via putative intracellular receptors. This study suggests another JH membrane action by analyzing in vitro hemocyte behavior. In response to nonself, both granular cells and plasmatocytes of Spodoptera exigua can exhibit cell shape changes through spreading behaviors. Plasmatocytes were separated from total S. exigua hemocytes by Percoll gradient and exposed in vitro to an insect cytokine, plasmatocyte-spreading peptide (PSP), identified from Pseudoplusia includens. In response, the purified plasmatocytes spread in a dose-dependent manner from picomolar to micromolar concentrations. Interestingly, the PSP responses of plasmatocytes in S. exigua varied among different larval ages during fifth instar (≈5 days at 25 °C) in a sensitivity order of late (5 days old)