Fluorides negatively affect the development of organisms and are a threat to human health and environmental safety. In this study, Bombyx mari N cell line (BmN) were used to explore effects of NaF on insect cells. We found that 8 h (hrs) culture with high concentration of NaF (>= 1 mM) induced significantly morphological changes. Dose-response curves of 72 h continuously cultured BmN treated with NaF showed that the half inhibitory concentration (IC50) value was 56.60 mu M. Treatment of BmN with 100 and 300 mu M of NaF induced apoptosis and necrosis. 2-D electrophoresis of whole cell extracted from BmN showed that treatment with 300 mu M NaF up-regulated 32 proteins and down-regulated 11 proteins when compared with controls. We identified 5 different proteins by MALDI-TOF MS, and 4 of them were identified for the first time, including 2 up-regulated proteins (mitochondrial aldehyde dehydrogenase ALDH2 and prohibitin protein WPH) and 2 down-regulated proteins (calreticulin precursor CRT and DNA supercoiling factor SCF). These observations were further confirmed by fluorescence quantitative PCR. Together, our data suggest that these target proteins could be regarded as targets influenced by NaF and also provide clues for studies on the response metabolism pathway under NaF stress. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.