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Research Articles

Immunotoxic effects of force-fed ethephon on model organism Galleria mellonella (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae)

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Pages 1761-1768 | Received 25 Aug 2020, Accepted 03 Jan 2021, Published online: 18 Jan 2021
 

Abstract

Incorporation of chemical substances like plant growth regulators in agricultural practices to boost production has become inevitable; thus, they have accumulated in the environment in tremendous amounts. However, due to their nonselective nature, they affect several components of the ecosystem like the invertebrates. In this study, therefore, the effects of force-fed Ethephon on the cellular mediated immune system of model insect G. mellonella larvae were investigated using the lethal doses LD25 and LD50 determined in a previous study. Our results indicated that treating G. mellonella larvae with ETF significantly reduces the number of circulating hemocytes and also reduces the number of live cells while increasing the apoptotic and necrotic cell ratios at all doses. Additionally, ETF increased the number of spherulocytes, oenocytes and prohemocytes as well as the mitotic indices while reducing the number of granulocytes in circulation but did not alter the number of plasmatocytes. Moreover, the in vivo encapsulation assays showed significant suppression of the encapsulation abilities of the ETF treated G. mellonella larval hemocytes at both ETF doses. The findings of the current study are indicative of the ecotoxic effects that may arise due to ETF and that its usage should be controlled or monitored as it poses major threats to several organisms and the ecosystem at large.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Eskisehir Technical University, Scientific Research Projects Commission, of Turkey (Grant Number 20ADP211).

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