Thanks to the power of Drosophila genetics, this animal model has been a precious tool for scientists to uncover key processes associated to innate immunity. The fly immune system relies on a population of macrophage-like cells, also referred to as hemocytes, which are highly migratory and phagocytic, and can easily be followed in vivo. These cells have shown to play important roles in fly development, both at the embryonic and pupal stages. However, there is no robust assay for the study of hemocyte migration in vitro, which limits our understanding of the molecular mechanisms involved. Here, we contribute to fill this gap by showing that hemocytes adopt a polarized morphology upon ecdysone stimulation, allowing the study of the cytoskeleton rearrangements and organelle reorganization that take place during the first step of cell locomotion.

中文翻译：

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一种研究黑腹果蝇血细胞极化过程中亚细胞重排的体外方法

由于果蝇遗传学的强大，这种动物模型已成为科学家们发现与先天免疫相关的关键过程的宝贵工具。苍蝇免疫系统依赖于一群巨噬细胞样细胞，也称为血细胞，它们具有高度的迁移性和吞噬性，在体内很容易被跟踪。这些细胞已显示在苍蝇发育中发挥重要作用，无论是在胚胎阶段还是在蛹阶段。然而，没有可靠的体外血细胞迁移研究方法，这限制了我们对所涉及的分子机制的理解。在这里，我们通过显示血细胞在蜕皮激素刺激下采用极化形态来填补这一空白，从而允许研究在细胞运动的第一步期间发生的细胞骨架重排和细胞器重组。