Poster 123.  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.482.

 

 

Biochemistry Assessment From Hepatic Activity In Rats After Induction With Bothrops neuwiedii Venom

 

1Bortolin, K.; 1França, R.F.; 1Sales, R.P.; 1Mine, C.E.C.; 1Franco, A.D.; 2Brandão, A.A.H. ; 2Carvalho, V.A.P.; 3Hyslop, S.; 1Prianti, A.C.; 1Cogo, J.C.; 1Lopes-Martins, R.A.B.; 1Ribeiro, W.

 

1 Depto. de Fisiologia e Farmacodinâmica, Instituto de Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento (IP&D), Universidade do Vale do Paraíba (UNIVAP), São José dos Campos - SP.; 2 Depto. de Farmacologia, Unesp, São José dos Campos – SP; 3 Depto. Farmacologia e Bioquímica, Unicamp, Campinas – SP.

 

In Brazil, Bothrops snakes are responsible for 90% of snakebites. The lethal toxicity of Bothropsneuwiedii can be attributed mainly to the presence of a neurotoxic protein, which also shows phospholipase A2 activity. Renal damage and coagulation abnormality are important causes of death. To examine the hepatic activity after envenomation we divided male Wistar rats (200±20g) into 3 groups (7 rats/group) that received saline (S, control group, 100mL of a 0.9% w/v solution i.m. and were killed 3 hours later.), venom 3 hours (V3, 200mg/Kg injected i.m. in 0.9% saline and were killed 3 hours later) and venom 12 hours (V12, 200mg/Kg injected i.m. in 0.9% saline and were killed 12 hours later). The hepatocellular function was assessed by measuring the serum levels of aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), alkaline phosphatase (AP) and gamma glutamyl transferase (GGT). The increased serum levels of aminotransferases at group V3 (ALT 42,68 ± 1,84 U/L; AST 110,29 ± 5,45 U/L) returned to normal range at group V12 (ALT 26,41 ± 3,29 U/L; AST 78,04 ± 6,56 U/L). The moderate alterations in the values of AP did not increase significantly when compared to saline group (75,81 ± 6,65) V3 (61,04 ± 2,42 U/L) and V12 (80,21 ± 5,11 U/L). The serum concentration of GGT on rats sacrificed between 3 and 12 hours after the inoculation were not significantly different from each other. The present results suggest that Bothropsneuwiedii venom did not cause liver damage in those dose and periods studied.

 

Support: FAPESP, CAPES.

 

Correspondence to: kabortolin@terra.com.br