Effects of Hogna Carolinensis and phidippus octopuncatatus spider venoms on cultured heart cells: Morphological studies

ABSTRACT

The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of the venoms from wolf spider Hogna carolinensis and the Jumping spider phildippus octopuncatatus on the morphology and viability of culyured 1-2 days old rat embryonic cardiac cells. After treatment with spiders venom, marked morphological change in cardiac cells were observed illustrated by rounding-up of the cells, reduction in cell size, loss of cellular projections and clustering.This was followed by cell detachment from the substratum, as revealed by light microscopy cells proliferation were also susceptible to the toxic effect of both Hogna carolinensis and Phidippus octopunctatus, and it caused a signifcant time and dose dependent decrease in cell number when the cells were treated with 0.05, 5, 5, 50 or 200ug/ml of the venom for the five days