Different roles of crayfish hemocytes in the uptake of foreign particles

Crustacean hemocytes are known to remove invading pathogens by phagocytosis. In this study, we investigated how the semigranular cells (SGCs) and granular cells (GCs) of crayfish Cherax quadricarinatus participated in this process. By injecting the animals with excessive amounts of fluorescent microspheres (FMs), we showed that only a small portion of the circulating hemocytes were phagocytic cells, and they took up FMs in a size-dependent manner. The 0.2 μm FMs were internalized almost entirely by SGCs, while GCs and SGCs both contributed to the uptake of 2 μm FMs. Further analysis of the hemocytes from the animals injected with a mixture of FMs suggested that there were a subpopulation of SGCs specifically ingesting 0.2 μm FMs. The size-dependent manner was also applied to biological particles. Escherichia coli was internalized by both SGCs and GCs, whereas white spot syndrome virus (WSSV) was mostly ingested by SGCs. However, the bacterial cells were rapidly taken and cleared from the circulation by the hemocytes, while the WSSV virions were gradually internalized and remained in the cells for a relatively longer period of time. These findings provide basic information of the phagocytic hemocytes of crayfish and how they respond to different foreign particles.