Changes in Galleria mellonella apolipophorin III level during Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection

The level of apoLp-III in fat body, hemocytes and plasma from Galleria mellonella larvae infected with Pseudomonas aeruginosa was studied. It was found that the amount of 18 kDa protein present in fat body and hemocytes decreased progressively with time after infection. In the case of plasma, an increase in apoLp-III content was observed during the first 19 h after infection and then decreased significantly after prolonged infection time. The decreased level of apoLp-III in plasma 24 h after infection was accompanied by the appearance of smaller than 18 kDa immunoreactive polypeptides. Four intermediate forms with molecular mass of, respectively, 15, 13.3, 12 and 9.5 kDa were detectable. The size of polypeptides detected in experiments performed in vivo is comparable with the degradation products of apoLp-III produced by serine protease IV in vitro. In addition, the total proteolytic activity of plasma increased progressively during infection time. The results of our studies suggest that a significant part of total proteolytical activity in the plasma of infected G. mellonella larvae can be attributed to proteases produced by P. aeruginosa during pathogenesis. We discuss the possibility that protease IV of P. aeruginosa is responsible for apoLp-III degradation in vivo.