Fig. 2

Lymphocyte subsets and their expression levels of activation markers after TsV treatment. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (2 × 10⁵ cells) were cultured with Tityus serrulatus scorpion venom (TsV; 25, 50, and 100 μg/mL) or phytohemagglutinin (PHA; 2 μg/mL; positive control) for 24 h, at 37 °C, under 5 % CO₂, and further stained with monoclonal antibodies to simultaneously detect CD3⁺CD4⁺ (a, b, c) and CD3⁺CD8⁺ (d, e, f) T lymphocyte subsets, and the expression of three activation markers: CD69 (a, d), CD25 (b, e), and HLA-DR (c, f). Control: untreated cells. Data are expressed as mean ± SEM of six experiments. ***p <0.001 vs. control