Taking this into account, we designed a study to investigate the ability of B. bilineata crude venom (BbV) to activate isolated human neutrophils since it has been shown that this venom causes inflammation and induces neutrophil recruitment into the peritoneal cavity of mice 4 h after its
injection (Porto et al., 2007). First, the effect of BbV on human neutrophil viability was evaluated. The results showed that BbV did not affect neutrophil viability indicating its low
toxicity on this cell type. The effect of BbV on human neutrophil viability was not demonstrated until now, but literature shows that B. asper venom decreases the viability of neutrophils isolated from mice ( Moreira et al., 2009).