Cholesterol Binding in <i>Schistocerca gregaria </i>and Insect Cell Lines

Abstract

Cholesterol binding affinities in different tissue homogenates of <i>Schistocerca gregaria </i>(Forskal) and insect cell line are reported. In the first set of experiment , binding could be observed in haemolymph, ovary, testis, fat body, midgut, mucin and serum protiens of both sexes of <i>Schistocerca gregoria. </i>The binding assays were conducted in the presence of labelled and unlabelled cholesterol. The total number of binding sites (Rt ) are found to be 4.77×10^-8 mole/L while extracted proteins from 1st and IInd peaks show 7.10×10^-9 and 12.8× 10^-9 mole/L. The binding sites in <i>delipidated </i>mucin have shown some higher binding (2.97 × 10^-8 mole/L) than the <i>non-lipidated </i>mucin (1.38 ×10^-8 mole/L). Insect cell lines Sf-9 and BmN cells have kd value of 1.494×10^-8 and 4.08×10^-8 mole/L in crude homogenate.