Mild reproductive effects of the Tityus bahiensis scorpion venom in rats

Abstract

BackgroundScorpion envenoming is a public health problem in Brazil, where Tityus serrulatus and T. bahiensis are considered the most dangerous scorpions. They are well adapted to urbanized environments, and there is an increasing probability of human exposure to these venoms, including during pregnancy. Not much is known about the effects of prenatal exposure to the venom, and no information is available to aid in the rational treatment of victims stung during pregnancy. Thus, this study aimed to investigate whether venom from the scorpion T. bahiensis administered once to pregnant female rats at a dose that causes a moderate envenomation may lead to deleterious effects on the reproductive performance of the dams and on the development of their offspring. This is the first work demonstrating that T. bahiensis venom, when administered experimentally to rats, alters maternal reproductive performance and the morphological development of fetuses. The venom was given to dams on the 5th (GD5) or on the 10th (GD10) gestational day. After laparotomy, on GD21, fetuses and placentas were counted, weighed and externally analyzed. The corpora lutea were counted. The sex and vitality of fetuses were evaluated, and each litter was then randomly divided for visceral or skeletal analyses. Data were analyzed by ANOVA followed by the Tukey-Kramer test and Fisher’s exact test. The significance level for all tests was set at p < 0.05.ResultsGD5 group presented an increased number of pre-implantation losses. Weight gains in fetuses and placentas were observed in the GD5 and GD10 groups. Weights of the heart and lungs were elevated in GD5 and GD10 and liver weight in GD10.ConclusionsModerate envenomation by T. bahiensis scorpion venom alters maternal reproductive performance and fetal development. However, these are preliminary results whose causes should be investigated more carefully in future studies.

Tityus bahiensis scorpion venom injected to dams during pregnancy affects some cytokines of fetuses

“…This alteration would explain the implantation loss observed in our previous experiments (Barão et al, 2008b;Dorce et al, 2014). Moreover, our results agree with Sinzato et al (2011), who observed that diabetic rats had decreased IL-10 and an increase in pre-and post-implantation losses.…”

“…Moreover, the IL-1 system is associated with an increased risk of placental and perinatal brain damage (Girard et al, 2010). It is possible that the alterations on IL-1 levels are responsible for the increase in weight of the placenta found in our previous works (Cruttenden et al, 2008;Dorce et al, 2014). Regarding IFN-g, we know that, along with other components of the immune system, it is involved in the process of neurogenesis (Yirmiya and Goshen, 2011).…”

“…On the other hand, it has already been demonstrated that the scorpion venom alters the reproductive performance and physical and behavioral development of rats experimentally treated with scorpion venom during pregnancy (Barão et al, 2008a,b;Dorce et al, 2009Dorce et al, , 2010Dorce et al, , 2014. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine whether there are changes on the cytokine levels in the fetus/ placenta unit of dams treated with the venom during pregnancy, and whether these changes may be correlated with the alterations observed in the offspring.…”

Androctonus crassicauda Zehirinin Gebe Sıçanlar ve Yavruları Üzerine Etkileri

“…In addition, this is a critical stage during which, on the 10 th day of pregnancy, the formation of several organs such as the eyes, brain and heart and aortic arches, axial skeleton, palate and urogenital system occur in the organogenesis period. Materials introduced during the organogenesis period may have teratogenic effects [18] . In the assessment of maternal weight, the body weight of rats in the venom group decreased significantly from days 7 to 13 of pregnancy when compared to the control.…”

Arachnids of medical importance in Brazil: main active compounds present in scorpion and spider venoms and tick saliva

“…There are more than ten different Tityus species in Brazil, among which Tityus stigmurus , Tityus bahiensis and Tityus serrulatus are primarily responsible for human envenoming. T. serrulatus is considered the most dangerous species in the country, responsible for the highest number of envenoming accidents [ 16 , 17 ].…”