Our knowledge of disease responses in bees has greatly increased over the past few years, yet lags behind other species. So the comparison must be adjusted somewhat to account for apparent differences.

> The innate immune system of insects holds many similarities to innate immunity in mammals, yet the study of hemolymph has lagged far behind mammalian serum largely due to the enormous effort and resource investment into the search for disease biomarkers in humans. In the last 4 years only a handful of studies have used mass spectrometry to characterize hemolymph peptides and proteins in insects. Drosophila melanogaster is the best studied among them as researchers have worked to elucidate the hemolymph proteomes of healthy flies as well as postinjury and immune- challenged flies.

> Key proteins in all adult hemolymph include transferrin, an iron transporter; apolipophorin, a lipid transporter; and vitellogenin, a major nutrient storage protein in females thought to serve as a nutrient reserve and lipid carrier. The fluid also contains components of the innate immune system, such as macrophage-like cells (hemocytes), anti- microbial peptides, and prophenoloxidase for the encapsulation of pathogens.

Queenie W. T. Chan, et al
Molecular & Cellular Proteomics 5: 2252–2262, 2006.

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