Cellular Response to Ecdysterone in vitro

Organ cultures of hindgut from diapausing tobacco hornworm pupae, Manduca sexta (Johannson), produce an abundance of migrant cells around the original explant. With time-lapse cinematography, these cells were seen to move slowly and tended to aggregate. The addition of ecdysterone (beta-ecdysone) to these cultures stimulated a large increase in individual cell movements and the eventual disruption of cell sheets.