Immunological comparison of hemorrhagic principles present in venoms of the Crotalinae and Viperinae subfamilies

Abstract

F. R. Mandelbaum, S. M. T. Serrano, J. K. Sakurada, H. A. Rangel and M. T. Assakura. Immunological comparison of hemorrhagic principles present in venoms of the Crotalinae and Viperinae subfamilies. Toxicon 27, 169–177, 1989.—Antibodies were raised against hemorrhagic factors HF 1, HF 2 and HF 3 isolated from the venom of Bothrops jararaca and NHF a,b from the venom of Bothrops neuwiedi. Crude venoms of different species of snakes were assayed with the rabbit antisera specific for the hemorrhagic factors. Results of immunodiffusion, neutralization of hemorrhagic activity and micro-complement fixation indicated that there is an immunological relationship between the venom hemorrhagic components of the Bothrops species and those of other species of the Crotalinae subfamily. The factors of Bothrops species seem to be structurally similar. The hemorrhagic proteins from the venoms of Lachesis, North American Crotalus, Asian Trimeresurus and Agkistrodon species show some resemblance to the Bothrops factors. The venom hemorrhagic principles from snakes of the Viperinae subfamily ( Bitis and Vipera species) might have few epitopes similar to those of Bothrops species as the only relation shown was the partial neutralization by the immune sera.