LYSOZYME AND ANTIPROTEASE ACTIVITY IN THE LESSER OCTOPUS ELEDONE-CIRRHOSA (LAM.) (CEPHALOPODA)

Antiprotease and lysozyme activities were detected in various tissue s amples including the haemocytes and haemolymph of Eledone cirrhosa. In jection of live Vibrio anguillarum caused an increase in lysozyme acti vity in the branchial heart over 48 hours and a decrease in the lysozy me activity of haemocytes over 24 hours. Haemocytes from control PBS i njected animals demonstrated increased lysozyme levels 4 hours after i njection,whereas it decreased after the injection of live bacteria in PBS, The lysozyme activity of the haemolymph was not affected by these procedures, Bacteria injections had no effect on the antiprotease act ivity of the organ samples but increased the antiprotease activity of the haemocytes compared to controls in the 4 h samples, Haemolymph ant iprotease activity decreased at a greater rate following bacteria inje ction than in control PBS injected animals. Haemocyte numbers/ml incre ased for both the control and bacteria injected animals with a greater increase demonstrated for the bacteria injected animals in the 4 h sa mple, Concomittant with the increase in the numbers of circulating hae mocytes live V. anguillarum were cleared from the circulation of E. ci rrhosa in less than 4 hours. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.