[Amino acid changes following intraperitoneal administration of Tityus zulianus scorpion venom in mice. Study with subcutaneous microdialysis and capillary electrophoresis].

Scorpion human envenoming is a public health hazard in the southwest of Venezuela. Tityus zulianus is one of the scorpion species whose venom causes lung edema and cardiac failure in children. These occasionally deadly manifestations have been attributed to a massive sympathetic discharge. The intraperitoneal administration of T. zulianus venom (20 micrograms/g mouse) to anesthetized mice during subcutaneous microdialysis caused increased secretions, dyspnea, seizures and death between 30 min to 2 h. Seven amino acids were analyzed by capillary electrophoresis with laser induced fluorescence detection (CE-LIFD) in the collected samples before and after the venom administration. We found an increase of arginine (39%), phenylalanine (40%) and glutamate (94%), with no changes in valine, serine and aspartate, changes were significant when the injection of venom and vehicle were compared and before vs after venom injection. Further investigation is needed to know if the observed changes could be related to the molecular mechanisms of the venom or some of its components and therefore with the envenoming symptoms. To our knowledge, this is the first report with subcutaneous microdialysis and CE-LIFD coupling in scorpion envenomation studies in vivo, in mice.