Haemocyte involvement in the repair of the insect central nervous system after selective glial disruption

Abstract

Injection of physiologically inert particles (fluorescent microspheres) has a profound effect on neural repair of central nervous connectives of the cockroach Periplaneta americana following selective glial disruption. The injected particles, which do not gain direct access to the central nervous tissues, are taken up by a relatively small proportion (< 10%) of the haemocytes. This interference with haemocyte function virtually abolishes the appearance of the granule-containing cells (which are prominently involved in normal glial repair) and produces abnormal reorganization of the superficial glial elements. These results are interpreted as evidence that the granule-containing cells are derived from haemocytes which are critically involved in glial repair.