The Action of Various Snake Venoms and Their Chromatographic Fractions on Animal Cells in Culture

Abstract

Summary: The effect of various snake venoms and their chromatographic fractions was tested on different animal cells in vitro. A broad range of susceptibility of the various cell lines to the destructive effect of the venoms was observed. Minute amounts of the venoms of Vipera palestinae and of Walterinnesia aegyptia caused destruction of chick and mouse embryonic cells, whereas no cytopathic activity was observed on monkey kidney cells. Echis colorata venom showed a similar effect on the former two cell types, exerting, in addition, a pronounced cytopathic effect on monkey kidney cells. The venom of Pseudocerastes fieldii exhibited no cytopathic effect on any of the cells. The susceptibility of cell cultures to the destructive action of the venoms of Vipera palestinae and Echis colorata was a hundred times higher than that of mice in toxicity tests. The cytopathic effect of the chromatographic fractions of Vipera palestinae and Echis colorata venoms on cells in culture was correlated with their hemorrhagic activity and their in vitro proteolytic activity, more so with the latter.