DEPARTMENT OF BIOLOGY & PHYSICS

ALBRECHT LAB

 
 

CURRENT PROJECTS

 

PROTEIN EXPRESSION OF HUVEC IN RESPONSE TO HEMORRHAGIC VENOM

 

GENE EXPRESSION OF HUVEC IN RESPONSE TO HEMORRHAGIC VENOM

In order for venom to be effective, it must disrupt vascular tissue.   To better understand venom toxicity, we stimulated endothelial cells with sublethal concentrations of crude western diamondback snake venom. Preliminary, real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) data suggest that crude venom from Crotalus atrox up-regulates a family of metallothionein and cytochrome P450 genes in endothelial cells (Figure 1).

FRACTIONATION OF HEMORRHAGIC SNAKE VENOM

Several studies have suggested metallothionein is upregulated in response to transition metal cyto-toxicity.  Therefore, we hypothesize that Crotalus atrox venom may contain significant levels of transition metals, which elicit the production of metallothionein proteins by endothelial cells in an attempt to reduce cytotoxic effects.  To investigate this, crude Crotalus atrox venom (extremely low concentrations) will be separated into various polar fractions using column chromatography.  Although column chromatography separation of crude venom proteins is well documented, little work has been done understanding the transition metal components of Crotalus atrox venom. The venom fractions from this study will be used to stimulate and monitor endothelial MTX1 gene expression in future projects.