Assessment of the relationship between the amount of scorpion venom in the central nervous system and the severity of scorpion envenomation in rats

Abstract

Rats animal model was used to assess the severity of symptoms produced following the Intracerebroventricular injection (ICV) of incremental doses of Buthus lienhardi scorpion venom based on histopathological, biochemical, and hematological analyses. Our results show that the ICV injection of incremental doses of scorpion venom induced a dose-dependent effects resulting in death when high doses were administrated (5.4 and 8.1 µg/kg). Moreover, ICV administration of lower doses of B. lienhardi (0.27 and 2.7 µg/kg) produced marked myofibrillar degeneration, while lungs showed intra-alveolar hemorrhage. Concomitantly, there was a significant rise in the serum levels of AST, ALT, CPK, LDH, urea, and creatinine.

Keywords:

• Scorpion envenomation severity
• intracerebroventricular injection
• Buthus lienhardi
• biochemical impairments
• histopathology
• hematology

Acknowledgments

The Authors would like to thank Mr.A. Regragui for his assistance for animal care.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.