Jellyfish
stings can result in local tissue damage and systemic pathophysiological sequelae. Despite constant occurrences of jellyfish
stings in oceans throughout the world, the toxinological assessment of these jellyfish envenomations has not been adequately reported in quantitative as well as in qualitative measurements. Herein, we have examined and compared the in vivo toxic effects and pathophysiologic alterations using experimental animal models for two representative stinging jellyfish classes, i.e., Cubozoa and Scyphozoa. For this study, mice were administered with
venom extracts of either Carybdea brevipedalia (Cnidaria: Cubozoa) or Nemopilema nomurai (Cnidaria: Scyphozoa). From the intraperitoneal (IP) administration study, the median lethal doses leading to the deaths of mice 24 h post-treatment after (LD50) for C. brevipedalia
venom (CbV) and N. nomurai
venom (NnV) were 0.905 and 4.4697 mg/kg, respectively. The acute toxicity (i.e., lethality) of CbV was much higher with a significantly accelerated time to death value compared with those of NnV. The edematogenic activity induced by CbV was considerably (83.57/25 = 3.343-fold) greater than NnV. For the evaluation of their dermal toxicities, the epidermis, dermis, subcutaneous tissues, and skeletal muscles were evaluated toxinologically/histopathologically following the intradermal administration of the
venoms. The minimal hemorrhagic doses (MHD) of the
venoms were found to be 55.6 and 83.4 μg/mouse for CbV and NnV, respectively. Furthermore, the CbV injection resulted in extensive alterations of mouse dermal tissues, including severe
edema, and hemorrhagic/necrotic lesions, with the minimum necrotizing dose (MND) of 95.42 µg/kg
body weight. The skin damaging effects of CbV appeared to be considerably greater, compared with those of NnV (MND = 177.99 µg/kg). The present results indicate that the toxicities and pathophysiologic effects of
jellyfish venom extracts may vary from species to species. As predicted from the previous reports on these jellyfish envenomations, the crude
venom extracts of C. brevipedalia exhibit much more potent toxicity than that of N. nomurai in the present study. These observations may contribute to our understanding of the toxicities of
jellyfish venoms, as well as their mode of toxinological actions, which might be helpful for establishing the therapeutic strategies of jellyfish
stings.