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Poster 32. Congresso da Sociedade Brasileira de Toxinologia, 8., Symposium of the Pan American Section of the International Society on Toxinology, 8., 2004, Angra dos Reis, Brasil. Abstracts... J. Venom. Anim. Toxins incl.Trop. Dis., 2004, 10, 3, p.391. |
The Histopathological Alterations Of APhospholipase A2, Alternatustoxin (BtTX), From Bothrops alternatus Venom, On Skeletal Muscle In Vitro.
1de Santis, L.H., 2Ponce-Soto, L.A., 3Barros, J.C., 2Fagundes, F.H.R., 3Rodrigues-Simioni, L., 2Marangoni, S. and 1Pereira, L. A. V.
1 Dept. of Histology and Embryology, Institute of Biology, UNICAMP; 2 Dept. of Biochemistry, Institute of Biology, UNICAMP; 3 Dept. of Pharmacology, Faculty of Medicine, UNICAMP.
Local and systemic skeletal muscle degeneration is a common consequence of envenoming following snakebites. Phospholipases A2 (PLA2) are important myotoxic components in snake venoms, with most of them producing a similar pattern of muscle degeneration. In this study, we isolated a new PLA2 Alternatustoxin (BtTX) from Bothrops alternatus venom using gel filtration on Superdex G-75 followed by reverse phase HPLC. The molecular mass of the purified protein was 14 kDa based on SDS-PAGE. In chick isolated biventer cervicis muscle preparations, Alternatustoxin (BtTX) (0.1, 0.5, 1, 2, 10, 50 and 100 µg/ml) significantly inhibited the twitch-tension responses (result not showed). The chiken biventer cervicis muscle preparations were fixed in paraformaldeid solution for 8-12 h followed by dehydration and embedding in parafin. Sections 5 mm thick were stained with hematoxylin-eosin (H.E.) prior to examination by light microscopy and the histopathological alterations seen in skeletal muscle involved a complex series of degenerative events, including hypercontraction and myofibril disorganization. These findings indicate that Alternatustoxin (BtTX) is neurotoxic and myotoxic in chick isolated biventer cervicis muscle.