SUPEROXIDE DISMUTASE ACTIVITY IN CHAMELEA GALLINA HAEMOCYTES DURING ANOXIA AND REOXIGENATION

The immune system of the animals consists of cellular and humoral elements involved in defence mechanisms from pathogens, parasites and foreign elements. Concerning to invertebrates, the immune responses are mediated by haemocytes through several internal defence mechanisms. As mammalian monocytes and macrophages, bivalve haemocytes show high phagocytosys activity versus non-self molecules and cells. Haemocytes activation determines an increasing oxygen consumption (respiratory burst) resulting in a reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation, that play a very important role in microbiocidal activity. However an excess of ROS production during an infection, can be dangerous for the cells, causing lipid peroxidation and DNA damages. The cell defence versus oxidative stress rely on enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidant systems. The superoxide dismutase (SOD) is one of the main enzyme involved in antioxidant activity. In this research will be evaluated the production of ROS (indirectly through SOD activity detection) by Chamelea gallina haemocytes during anoxia and following recovery and its role in immune responses.