haemolymph components of infected & none infected lymnaea snails with xiphidiocercariae

background: in this study the haemolymph components of infected and none infected lymnaea gedrosiana with xiphidiocercaria larvae was compared. methods: five hundred fifty lymnaea snails were collected from ilam and mazandaran prov­inces, iran, during 2008-2009. the snails were transported to the lab at tehran university of medi­cal sciences and their cercarial sheddings were studied. haemolmyphs of snails were ex­tracted and cells were counted using haemocytometer and cell-surface carbohydrate were recog­nized by conjugated lectin (lentil). haemolymph protein concentrations were measured by brad­ford protein assay method and soluble protein compositions were determined on sodium dodecyl sulphate polyacrilamide gel electrophoresis (sds-page). result: from the 550 examined lymnaea snails for cercariae, 27 snails were infected with xiphidiocer­cariae. mean of haemolymph cells (haemocyte) number were obtained 93480±2.43 (cells/ml) for none infected snails (25 snail) and 124560±2800 (cells/ml) for infected snails (25 snail). mannose carbohydrate was recognized on haemocyte of none infected and infected snails.  mean of protein concentration of haemolymph plasma was obtained as 1354 ± 160 μg/ml (1.4 mg/ml) for none infected snails (25 snails) and 1802±138 μg/ml (1.8 mg/ml) for infected snail (25 snails). comparing to none infected snails, the sds-page results of haemolymph plasma of infected snails, showed an extra protein band (70 kda). the results showed a significant differ­ence between the amounts and the kinds of proteins in haemolymph of infected and none infected snails. conclusion: this information might be useful to understand of parasite detection, adhesion, engulf­ment and antigen agglutination by snail.