Alüminyum oksit’in Galleria mellonella (L.) (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) Larvalarında Total Hemosit Sayıları Üzerine Etkileri

The heavy metals are one of the important factors of environmental pollution. Heavy metal pollution can cause adverse effect not only on growth, reproduction, survival, and metabolism in animals, but also effects the innate immune system adversely. Different concentrations of Al2O3 solution (10, 50 and 100 µg/mL) were injected into the proleg of the last instar Galleria mellonella larvae by Hamilton injector for 2, 4 and 8 hours. Then, the total hemocyte count was determined with the hemolymph obtained from the control and experimental groups. As a result of the data obtained, G. mellonella larvae exposed to Al2O3 solution showed a decrease in total hemocyte count in 2, 4 and 8 hours in all concentrations compared to the control and this reduction was found to be statistically significant. Changes in hemocyte numbers of G. mellonella larvae have shown that it can be used as a good model organism in evaluating environmental pollution levels and it can also lead to immunological and physiological studies on other species.