Crotalinae snake venoms cause severe local myonecrosis and microvasculature failure at the bite site. We evaluated whether low-level laser therapy (LLLT) could accelerate angiogenesis and myoregeneration in male Swiss mice injected with Bothrops moojeni venom through immunohistochemistry of the vascular endothelial growth factor receptor-1 (VEGFR-1). Envenomed gastrocnemius was either unirradiated (V) or irradiated with HeNe (VHN, 632.8 nm) or GaAs (VGA, 904 nm, 10000 Hz). Animals sacrificed at 3 and 12 h were irradiated once (4 J cm(-2)), at 24 h (twice) and at 3, 7, 21 days (4, 8, 22 times, respectively). At 3 days, LLLT increased angiogenesis (80%:HeNe vs 40%:GaAs), decreased neutrophils and increased proliferation of regenerating cells. However, after 21 days, myoregeneration observed in the VHN group appeared delayed compared with the V group. As LLLT improved revascularization, the suggestive delay in myoregeneration could be a dose-response inhibitory effect caused by multiple irradiations in myogenesis. The immunodetection of VEGFR-1 in neutrophils, macrophages, satellite cells, fibroblasts, Schwann cells and skeletal and smooth muscle fibers (not seen in saline-controls) at only the acute stages of envenoming suggests a mediator role for VEGFR-1 in local alterations. This is the first time that VEGFR-1 expression, and its modulation by photostimulation, has been demonstrated in endothelial and nonendothelial cells of snake envenomed skeletal muscle.
© 2011 The Authors. Photochemistry and Photobiology © 2011 The American Society of Photobiology.