Hijacking of the victim immune response by insect venom?

I just gave a small presentation on how alum and other particulate adjuvants work via the "danger" signal system that is the NLRP3 inflammasome, with summaries here. I won't bother summarising anything here about it because it has already been done rather well at the link I just provided. I also feel lazy. Anyway while preparing my presentation, I did a last minute check on Pubmed for any new developments and apparently hyaluronan (among everything as it seems) triggers the NLRP3 inflammasome to produce IL1β.¹ Hyaluronan is a component of the extracellular matrix and it is released at a site of injury. By happenstance, I found out while trolling Google that insect venom contains hyaluronidase which obviously breaks down hyaluronan but also promotes the production of IgE and IgG1.^2,3 I think it's pretty neat that hyaluronidase in insect venom is an adaptation to adjuvant the victim's allergic response to insect stings.

yay I learned something today

---

1. Yamasaki K, Muto J, Taylor KR, Cogen AL, Audish D, Bertin J, Grant EP, Coyle AJ, Misaghi A, Hoffman HM, Gallo RL. NLRP3/cryopyrin is necessary for IL-1beta release in response to hyaluronan, an endogenous trigger of inflammation in response to injury. J Biol Chem. 2009 Mar 3 (epublication ahead...) doi:10.1074/jbc.M806084200
2. King TP. (haha sorry he must have gotten shit as a kid) Venom Allergenicity: Hyaluronan Fragments Promote Ige And Igg1 Response In Mice. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2009 Feb; 123(2): S1, page S99 doi:10.1016/j.jaci.2008.12.355
3. King TP, Spangfort MD. Structure and biology of stinging insect venom allergens. Int Arch Allergy Immunol. 2000 Oct;123(2):99-106. doi: 10.1159/000024440

What organisms can vegans work with?

I've been thinking about this, and it would seem that the only organisms that vegans can work with in biology in terms of not using any animal products would be photosynthetic or saphrotrophic organisms, maybe. I guess vegans could work in paleontology, but I think dead organisms would be an obvious exception.

Let me back up. Obviously vegans should not work with animals because poking, prodding, and killing animals wouldn't fit with their aim of not harming animals. Even observers of animal behaviour would inevitably have to harm animals in some fashion, I think. They cannot work with cell culture because cell culture requires animal products like fetal bovine serum (fetal calf serum, what's the difference anyway?) and bovine serum albumin. They cannot work with yeast or bacteria because a lot of growth media requires protein sources like hydrolysed milk casein. Ditto with most other branches of life, because ultimately I'd think one would have to use animal products somewhere in there. Even plants might be tricky especially since molecular biology has its fingers in practically every field of experimental biology including botany-- for instance, cloning plant DNA would inevitably require bacteria. Unless a vegan were content to spend their scientific career describing plants or other organisms in the most superficial way without molecular biology, then I think there really is no career in experimental biology for vegans.

I would love it if a vegan could confirm this, or otherwise correct any misconception of mine about the vegan lifestyle. Anyway, that's my small thought of the day.