Vasodilation in Drosophila melanogaster with the Application of Various Compounds

Overview

Objectives/Goals A prevalent problem globally, heart disease is often caused by the constriction of blood vessels, reversible using vasodilators. One class of these vasodilators, nitrate containing compounds, were tested upon cellular, embryonic, and larval fruit flies in order to test the effectiveness of a novel nitrate ester as a vasodilator. Methods/Materials Wild type and Cha GFP strains of fruit flies had to be maintained in food bottles. Using an assortment of salts and sugars, artificial hemolymph was created, wild-type larvae super-glued to a glass slide, the compound in question dissolved in the artificial hemolymph applied, and the heartbeats counted. GFP eggs were collected in bottles with grape-agar plates, and analyzed under a fluorescent cell imager from Biorad with the same solutions applied. Also, the myocytes are to be isolated from the eggs, and the compounds directly applied to them. Results The application of the nitrate ester to the larval flies statistically significantly lowered the heart rate compared to other compounds tested. The luminosities measured by the imager had no significant statistical difference comparing the eggs which had only hemolymph applied to those with the nitrate ester. Conclusions/Discussion The nitrate ester, along with the isosorbide dinitrate, worked to significantly lower heart rate in the larvae, indicating vasodilation - the relaxation of myocytes allows more hemolymph to circulate with less work from the heart. These decreases are likely not due to toxic effects, seeing that the luminosities measured in the GFP eggs, regardless of compound applied, remains about constant, indicating that other factors, likely vasodilation, causes the decrease.

Competition history

• CSEF 2017 Zoology · Entry S2310

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