When an organism or tissue is subjected to the disruptive effects of changes in intracellular ion and water concentrations due to new metabolism in vivo or environmental changes in vitro the body, intracellular water rapidly diffuses across the cell membrane, resulting in an imbalance of intracellular ions and causing protein damage through aggregation. Fluctuations in extracellular osmotic pressure are a common stressor that all cells will face, and in response to these challenges, cells and organisms have evolved multifaceted and conserved molecules to restore cell volume and repair stress-induced damage. As a model organism, C. elegans provides new and unexpected insights into issues related to osmotic stress.

Osmotic Stress in C. elegans

Keeping the balance of cellular osmotic is an essential prerequisite for cellular life. Cellular osmotic homeostasis is determined by the accumulation and loss of inorganic ions and organic osmolytes. The natural soil environment is full of challenges of wide and rapid change of osmolarity. Due to a high surface-to-volume ratio, low gut and cuticle water permeability, C. elegans are particularly vulnerable to osmotic stress and have the ability to survive extreme conditions. Studies have shown that two independent mechanisms exist in C. elegans to cope with osmotic stress.

• Low Levels of Salt (200 mM NaCl): GPDH-1 (a glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase) induced glycerol synthesis rapidly increases to attenuate the damaging effects of high osmolarity, which is a typical effect of hyperosmotic stress in cells.
• High Levels of Salt (>500 mM NaCl): Another mechanism is mediated with the osmotically induced accumulation of damaged proteins. The accumulation of damaged proteins is an important feature of diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.

Fig.1 Hypertonic stress response pathways in C. elegans. (Urso S J, et al., 2021)

Our Services

CD BioSciences will provide you with C. elegans osmotic stress analysis services using techniques such as osmotic pressure manipulation, C. elegans survival assays, behavioral analysis, genetic manipulation, and molecular studies to help you understand how organisms adapt to changes in the osmotic pressure environment and advance your research. The following are some of the key technical components of our services, including but not limited to:

Our Advantages

CD BioSciences focuses on C. elegans osmotic stress analysis to help our customers to insight into the genetic and molecular mechanisms underlying osmotic stress-associated human diseases, including Alzheimer' and Parkinson' diseases. Additionally, our customers can consult with our experts to design the best solution according to your specific requirements. Please feel free to contact us if you are interested in our services.

Reference

1. Urso S J, Lamitina T. The C. elegans hypertonic stress response: big insights from shrinking worms[J]. Cellular physiology and biochemistry: international journal of experimental cellular physiology, biochemistry, and pharmacology, 2021, 55(Suppl 1): 89.

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