Eighty micrograms red blood cell (RBC) ghosts from patients who had previously exhibited the cutaneous form of loxoscelism (presenting localized dermonecrosis) and the viscerocutaneous form of loxoscelism (presenting dermonecrosis, hemoglobinuria, hematuria, and jaundice) and from controls were incubated with 2.5 microg crude Loxosceles gaucho venom in 5 mM phosphate buffer, pH 7.4, at 37 C. Am...

I recorded diel and seasonal activity patterns and behavior of the brown recluse spider, Loxosceles reclusa Gertsch & Mulaik 1940 in a free-ranging synanthropic population in northwestern Illinois. Recluse spiders are sit-and-wait predators that spend 85–90% of their nocturnal activity sitting motionless on a small network of silk they use for prey detection. Time not spent waiting for prey is ...

The morphology of silk produced by recluse spiders (Loxosceles arizonica) was investigated by scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy. This silk consisted entirely of very long, thin ribbons of width 2-4 microm and thicknesses of no more than 40 nm. The correspondence in shape and dimension between the silk ribbons and the elongated aperture o...

Sphingomyelinases D (SMases D) or dermonecrotic toxins are well characterized in Loxosceles spider venoms and have been described in some strains of pathogenic microorganisms, such as Corynebacterium sp. After spider bites, the SMase D molecules cause skin necrosis and occasional severe systemic manifestations, such as acute renal failure. In this paper, we identified new SMase D amino acid seq...

Abstract This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of mesenchymal stem cells (MSC), alone or associated with dapsone (DAP), in treating dermonecrotic wounds caused by Loxosceles laeta venom. Twenty-five male rabbits were distributed into five groups. Negative control received ultrapure water (C-), whilst all other groups injected 20 μg L. After 4 hours, each group one following treatments: PBS ...