Cell death during follicular atresia in Dipetalogaster maxima (Hemiptera:Reduviidae).

AGUIRRE, S.A.; PONS, P; SETTEMBRINI, B.P.; RUBIOLO, E.R.; CANAVOSO, L.E.

San Juan- Argentina

Jornada; Segunda Reunión Conjunta de Sociedades de Biología de la República Argentina; 2011

Sociedad de Biología de la República Argentina

In insects, unfavorable physiological, environmental or nutritional conditions induce changes in the ovarian tissue, which in turn elicit the atresia of some terminal follicles and the final oocyte resorption. Although recent studies in some species indicate that during atresia, the follicular and/or nurse cells can be eliminated by programmed cell death mechanisms, these events have not been explored in Triatominae. The aim of this work was to investigate the cell death mechanisms operating during follicular atresia induced by nutritional deprivation in Dipetalogaster maxima, a vector of Chagas? disease. For the study we performed light, fluorescence and electron microscopy, TUNEL assays, western blot and immunofluorescence. The results showed that in D. maxima, morphological changes during follicular atresia were established gradually. While during early atresia some follicular cells exhibited nuclei with an apoptotic pattern, during late follicular atresia cells displayed pronounced changes, exhibited cytoplasm vacuolization and abundant autophagic vacuoles. As expected during a process of food deprivation, an intense fluorescence pattern compatible with LC3-II, a marker for autophagy, was observed at the atretic stages. The findings provide a better understanding of unexplored aspects of the biology of reproduction of Chagas disease vectors, which have a clear impact in the life cycle of the females.