Each experiment was performed in two technical replicates and three independent runs. The level of complement activation for each experiment is expressed as M ± σM, where M is the average of the mean values obtained in each independent run and σM the average standard deviation calculated by:
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$${{\rm{\sigma }}_{\rm{M}}}{\rm{ = }}\sqrt {{{{{\rm{\sigma }}_{\rm{1}}}{\rm{ + }}{{\rm{\sigma }}_{\rm{2}}}{\rm{ + }}{{\rm{\sigma }}_{\rm{3}}}} \over {\rm{3}}}} $$
\end{document}To calculate the activation of the complement system, the concentration of iC3b measured in the negative control (PBS-challenged sera) was subtracted from the concentration measured in the tested samples (cobra venom and liposomes-challenged sera). The standard variation of the subtraction was calculated as the square root of the sum of the quadrature of the standard deviation of the negative control plus the quadrature of the standard deviation of the test samples. Statistical comparison among the different groups was carried out by running a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Dunnett’s Multiple comparison test. Differences were considered as statistically significant among the selected groups when p < 0.05.