S.A. Likewise, every effort was made to avoid unnecessary stress and pain to the experimental animals. The number of animals was kept to a minimum necessary to prove the concept. The

LD50 values and their confidence limits were calculated by Probit analysis (Finney, 1971), using the software BioStat5.0 (Software Informer, Inc.). Analysis of variance (ANOVA), followed by T test (Tukey) and F test were performed for all variables with normal distribution (Pulmonary Mass, CK, CK-MB, amount of Evans blue and total leukocyte) and these data are shown as mean ± SEM (standard error of the mean). In both cases the significance level was set at 5%. Among the doses of Ts-DF venom tested on mice, selleck the minimal dose capable Selleck GSK126 of causing death was 26 μg/mouse. The starting dose of 90 μg/mouse showed 100% lethality of the assayed

animals. For Ts-MG venom, the smallest dose causing death of mice (12.5%) was 11.6 μg/mouse, while the dose 58 μg/mouse was lethal to 100% of the animals tested. The dose/lethality dependence was clearly observed for both venoms (Fig. 1). In addition, it is noted from the rightward shift of the dose–response curve calculated for Ts-DF venom that this venom is less toxic than Ts-MG venom. It was observed during the course of the experiment that most deaths occurred within the first three hours after venom injection and particularly in groups of animals receiving the highest doses (data not shown). After 24 h of venom injection there were no deaths in either group. The LD50 (limit of 95%) calculated by Probit analysis for the Ts-DF and Ts-MG venoms were respectively 51.6 (40–64.8) μg/mouse and 26.0 (19.8–33) μg/mouse. Thus, the LD50 calculated for the Ts-DF venom was almost twice (1.98) higher than that calculated for Ts-MG venom, Meloxicam showing that the venom of the

Ts-DF is less toxic than Ts-MG. The behavioral and physiological changes in mice during the first three hours of injection of the Ts-DF and Ts-MG venoms are specified in Table 1. These changes were dose-dependent; with increasing doses of venom most of the changes listed become more frequent, with only exception of hypoactivity that was more frequently visualized in animals receiving the lowest doses of venom. The presence of intense salivation usually preceded the onset of spasms, and later convulsions. As expected Ts-MG venom induced pulmonary edema; the lung mass/body mass ratio of rats receiving Ts-MG venom, when compared with that obtained for the control animals (p < 0.001) and Ts-DF venom (p < 0.001) groups, increased significantly ( Fig. 2-A). On the other hand, the lung mass/body mass ratio of rats in Ts-DF venom group suffered no significant increase when compared to the control group (p > 0.05), demonstrating that unlike the T. serrulatus (MG) venom, the venom of specimens from DF was not able to induce acute pulmonary edema in rats.