Inhibition of the cytotoxicity of pelagia noctiluca Venom by lanthanum sulfate

Abstract Cnidarians exert a meaningful influence on human activities and healyh being able to produce several local and systemic symptoms on humans. Mediterranean jellyfish are scarcely poisonous, but during outbreaks the impact of some of them, such as the Scyphomedusa Pelagia noctiluca, is noteworthy. As some compounds containing lanthanum ions could act as protective agents, the protection of lanthanum sulfate was evaluated on cultured L929 cells treated with three doses (120,000 nematocysts (N)/ml, 240,000 N/ml and 480,000 N/ml) of jellyfish crude venom. The protection was effective against all considered doses of crude venom and showed the maximun efficacy after preincubation of cells with 10-5M lanthanum sulfate. These results indicate that lanthanum sulfate could be an useful component in preparations devoted to struggle the cutaneous and systemic effects consequent to Pelagia noctiluca stings.