SummaryA comparative study on the coagulant activity of snake venoms was carried out in 26 Bothrops species, using specific clotting systems for the thrombin-like and the factor X- activator activities. With only two exceptions (B. erythromelas and B. castelnaudi) all venoms showed thrombin-like activity, since they were able to clot fibrinogen directly. The absence of thrombin-like action of B. erythromelas venom is due to a fibrinogenolytic effect. Five venoms (B. atrox asper, B. bilineatus bilineatus, B. cotiara, B. fonsecai and B. itapetiningae) were unable to produce a prothrombin activator when preincubated with serum, factor V, and phospholipid. None of the venoms seems to require factors VII, VIII, IX, XII and XIII for their complete coagulant action. Direct prothrombin activation was observed in most of the Bothrops venoms, alone or combined with thrombin-like and factor X-activator activities.An anticoagulant activity was exhibited by B. castelnaudi venom, probably due to an. anti- Xa action. This study points out that the coagulant activity of snake venoms varies within the same genus and must be characterized for each species. Thus, in Bothrops venoms the thrombin-like and factor X-activator components are not always associated, the coagulant effect may be related only to one of the components.
SummaryAn investigation of the eight coagulant snake venoms has revealed the presence in three of these of both a direct thrombin-like activity and the ability to produce a powerful prothrombin activator from factor X in the presence of phospholipid and factor V. The use of antivenom prepared against the venoms indicated that the active principles were antigenically distinct in the genera studied but that some species cross reaction occurred.
SummaryExperiments with plasmas samples from the snake B. jararaca and X. merremii have shown that the two differ markedly with respect to their reaction to bovine thrombin. The plasma of X. merremii appears to react in a manner very similar to that of normal human plasma both using the thrombin clotting test and using the antithrombin III assay of Astrup and Darling (Biggs and Macfariane 1962). The plasma of B. jararaca on the other hand, contains, in addition to antithrombin III, an inhibitor which resembles mammalian heparin. This inhibitor prolongs the thrombin clotting time of human and X. merremii plasmas, is recorded by the antithrombin assay and is neutralized by protamine. The inhibitor is however, not identical with mammalian heparin since it is not adsorbed by BaSO4 and Al(OH)3 (which adsorb heparin) and it is heat labil whereas mammalian heparin is heat stable.
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