The indirect effect of Tityus discrepans on rabbit pulmonary vasculature

Serum (IS) was obtained 0.5, 2, 4 or 6 h after inoculating s.c. six rabbits (approximately 2 kg) in each time period with 1 mg/kg of Tityus discrepans (Td) venom; the control was serum obtained from four rabbits 4 h after injecting them 1 ml s.c. of 0.9% NaCl. IS produced a transient (<25 min) rise in pulmonary artery pressure of isolated and perfused rabbit lungs, other lung parameters were not altered. We found that both scorpion venom and IS produced a approximately 50% transient increase of transendothelial electric resistance in cultured tissue human umbilical cord vein. Neither venom nor IS changed the transepithelial electrical resistance of tissue cultured human airway epithelia. The experiments suggest that humoral factors contained in the inoculated serum modify vascular endothelium in a much more effective manner than the venom by itself. These experiments also make it unlikely that vascular endothelium is the source of the humoral factors contained in inflammatory serum.