Ronaldo Z. Mendonça, Luciana Moreira Martins
The apoptosis death is a very important factor in production processes that limited the industrial production of some proteins of economic interest. However, one of the forms to increase the cellular productivity would be inhibit or attenuate the cellular death. Recently we have demonstrated the presence of a potent anti-apoptotic protein in Lonomia obliqua hemolymph which extends the cell culture viability through apoptosis prevention. By the other side, has been reported that mitochondria have one important action in the apoptosis control process, being that Mitochondria Membrane Permeabilization (MMP) can be an important stage in this process. MMP associated or not with the loss of the electrochemical potential of the mitochondria and alteration of the matrix is responsible for the inter membranes protein release (e.g. cytochrome c, the AIF, etc) of cytosol. The result obtained showed that the addition of a protein from Lonomia obliqua hemolymph in the culture lead to a prolongation of the cellular life (3-4 days) and the cells leading a high electrochemical potential of the mitochondria. This protein can has its action in mitochondria membrane, avoiding the loss of the membrane permeability and the Cytochrome-C release. As positive control, apoptosis death in these cultures was induced by 50 μm of t-BHP or 600 μm of H202 . The presence of apoptosis was characterized by flow citometry, microscopy electronic and agarose gel electrophoresis. The potential electrochemical of the mitochondria was determined by JC-1, Hoechst 33324 and DIOC6. Cytochrome C was identified in cytosol by an anti-cytochrome antibody.