Phagocytosis of haemocytes in Eriocheir sinensis in vitro

Phagocytosis, the cellular defensing reactions of Eriocheir sinensis, was studied in vitro using Bacillus cereus and formalinized mouse erythrocytes as test particles. The results showed that 100.0 mg·mL^-1 L-cysteine van HARREVALD′s solution could anticoagulate hemolymph of E.sinensis. And phagocytosis was studied using a monolayer culture system which maintained cell viability at (92.5±0.9)% for 1hour at 20℃. Many of spread cells were phagocytic cells, which had pseudopodia and could phagocyte B.cereus in vitro. Uptake of the Gram-positive bacteria, B.cereus, was found to be (5.1±1.4)%. The formalinized mouse erythrocyte was not phagocytosed at all. Serum incubation did not increase the percentage of uptake of any of the test particles with the haemocytes.