Cellular Response to Ecdysterone in vitro

Abstract

Organ cultures of hindgut from diapausing tobacco hornworm pupae, Manduca sexta (Johannson), produce an abundance of migrant cells around the original explant. With time-lapse cinematography, these cells were seen to move slowly and tended to aggregate. The addition of ecdysterone (beta-ecdysone) to these cultures stimulated a large increase in individual cell movements and the eventual disruption of cell sheets.