Figure 1.

T. nattereri venom induces long-term wound in the footpads of mice. Female BALB/c mice were s.c. injected into the intraplantar region with 10 µg of the VTn diluted in 30 µL of sterile PBS, and the control-group was injected only with sterile PBS. (A) Examples of the paws of mice from the control-group on the left and from the VTn-injected group at 35 d (wound remodeling phase) on the right, where permanent injury with scab formation was observed in the VTn-injected group. After 4 and 24 h, 3 days, 7, 15, 21, and 35 days of injection, mice had their paws amputated, fixed, paraffinized, and sectioned at 5 μm. Slides were stained with H & E (B). Changes in the structure of the layers were indicated by red circles (leukocyte infiltrate), green asterisks, thin green arrows (ghost cells), and closed red arrows (scab formation). In the photomicrograph of the normal paw of the control-group, the vertical red bar indicates the stratum corneum, the vertical blue bar indicates the epidermis and the vertical green bar indicates the dermis. The images were obtained with the Axio Imager A.1 microscope, Carl-Zeiss, Germany, coupled to the Zeiss AxioCam IcC1 camera in 10×, 40×, or 100× objectives using a 1.6 optovar.