Morphometric studies on venom secretory cells from Bothrops jararacussu (Jararacuçu) before and after venom extraction.

A comparative morphometrical analysis was carried out on secretory cells from Bothrops jararacussu venom glands, before manual extraction of the venom (milking) and 4 and 8 days after milking. At the 8th day after milking, the cytoplasmic volume increased by 160%. The rough endoplasmic reticulum (RER) volume density increase, up to the 8th day after milking, is mainly due to widening of the intra-scisternal space. The total volume and membrane surface of the RER. Golgi apparatus and subcomponents, secretory vesicles and mitochondria, increased during the experimental period while the volume and surface densities of these organelles, with the exception of the RER, did not vary. The numerical density of Golgi-associated microvesicles per Golgi volume unit also increased. The greatest relative increments in these parameters occurred within the first 4 days. These results are compatible with an increased rate of membrane synthesis and transport in the milked glands and suggest that the membrane biogenesis, degradation and circulation that takes place in the first week after milking is achieved through coordinated cellular mechanisms that maintain the rate between total membrane surface and total cytoplasmic volume unaltered.