Acute kidney injury caused by the intraperitoneal injection of venom in rats.

We examined the ability of venom (12.5 mg/kg) injected intraperitoneally (i.p.) to cause acute kidney injury (AKI) in rats. Blood urea and creatinine (AKI biomarkers, in g dL) were elevated after 2 h in venom-treated rats (urea: from 0.41 ± 0.1 to 0.7 ± 0.03; creatinine from 46.7 ± 3.1 to 85 ± 6.7;  < 0.05;  = 3 each), with no change in circulating reduced glutathione. Venom-treated rats survived for ∼6 h, at which point platelets were reduced (×10 µL; from 763.8 ± 30.2 to 52.5 ± 18.2) whereas leukocytes and erythrocytes were slightly increased (from 4.7 ± 0.3 to 6.6 ± 0.1 × 10 µL and from 8.38 ± 0.1 to 9.2 ± 0.09 × 10 µL, respectively;  < 0.05); blood protein (5.2 ± 0.4 g dL) and albumin (2.7 ± 0.1 g dL) were normal, whereas blood and urinary urea and creatinine were increased. All parameters returned to normal with antivenom given 2 h post-envenomation. The i.p. injection of venom caused AKI similar to that seen with other routes of administration.