NK-like activities of a new population of nonadherent, lymphocyte-like haemocytes in shrimp

Korte beschrijving

The rapid development of the shrimp aquaculture industry is threatened worldwide by viral diseases, of which white spot syndrome (WSS) is the most harmful. The solution for these problems requires a deeper knowledge on shrimp immunity. Due to the absence of an adaptive immune response, vaccines cannot be used in shrimp which is in contrast with mammals and fish. As a result, their immune response is entirely dependent on innate immunity. In this way, haemocytes, as the only immnue cells in shrimp, play an important role. In previous work, five haemocyte subpopulations were isolated from shrimp, two of which have never been described. Their morphology is quite similar to that of mammalian lymphocytes. This present thesis further studied these two new subpopulations and determined their role in shrimp immune responses.