전자저널 > 전자저널 > Cellular Immune Responses of the Manila Clam, Ruditapes philippinarum, Exposed to Cadmium Chloride

Cellular Immune Responses of the Manila Clam, Ruditapes philippinarum, Exposed to Cadmium Chloride

Kyung-Il Park, Min-Soon Choi, Sung-Woo Park, Kwan-Ha Park, Sang-Hoon Choi and Jong-Man Yoon

Department of Aquatic Life Medicine, College of Ocean Science and Technology, Kunsan National University, Gunsan 573-701, Korea

The Manila clam, Ruditapes philippinarum, has been considered as a sentinel species due to dominant distribution along the coast of Korea and well developed regulatory system. In order to develop and understand immune responses of the Manila clams, clams were exposed to 50 μg/L of cadmium chloride (Cd) for 8 days and monitored the cellular immune parameters of the hemocytes including blast cell composition, DNA damage, necrosis, apoptosis and hemocyte mortality using a flow cytometer. The results showed that all immune parameters analyzed in the present study increased remarkably compared to the controls and the increases were statistically significant. Apoptosis rate was higher than necrosis rate in the clams exposed to Cd suggesting that apoptosis was preferably induced by the concentration of Cd used in the present study. Our study indicates that the measurement of cellular immune responses of the Manila clam using flow cytometer will be a useful technique for assessment of heavy metal contamination in marine environment.

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