Research Project
3440026
The freshwater snail, Biomphalaria glabrata, a vector of the medically important parasite, Schistosoma mansoni, is easy to maintain in the laboratory. Although used extensively in anatomically, physiological, biochemical, and immunological studies, relatively little information is available on lipids in B. glabrata. Snails fed hen's egg yolk show a significant increase in blood and tissue lipids compared to controls maintained on leaf lettuce. B. glabrata may serve as a useful invertebrate model to study dietary induced hyperlipidemia in humans. Using qualitative and quantitative thin-layer chromatography, neutral lipid classes will be characterized and quantified in snails fed yolk versus lettuce. Using capillary gas chromatography, free sterols and fatty acids will be identified and quantified in snails from both groups. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry will be used to confirm the identity of individual sterols and fatty acids from yolk-versus-lettuce-fed snail. The localization and distribution of lipids in the tissues of snail from both groups will be examined using cryostat histochemical procedures and transmission electron microscopy.
