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Bee venom protects hepatocytes from tumor necrosis factor-α and actinomycin D

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Abstract

Honeybee (Apis mellifera) venom (BV) has a broad array of therapeutic applications in traditional medicine to treat variety of diseases. It is also known that BV possesses anti-inflammatory and anticancer effect and that it can inhibit proliferation and induces apoptosis in cancer cells, but there is no evidence of information regarding anti-apoptosis of BV on hepatocytes. In the present study, we investigated the anti-apoptotic effect of BV on tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α with actinomycin (Act) D induces apoptosis in hepatocytes. TNF-α/Act D-treated hepatocytes were exposed to different low concentration (1, 10 and 100 ng/mL) of BV. Our results showed statistically significant inhibition in DNA damage caused by BV treatment compared to corresponding TNF-α/Act D-treated hepatocytes. BV suppressed TNF-α/Act Dtreated activation of bcl-2 family and caspase family, which resulted in inhibition of cytochrome c release and PARP cleavage. These results demonstrate that low concentration BV possess a potent suppressive effect on anti-apoptotic responses of TNF-α/Act D-treated hepatocytes and suggest that these compounds may contribute substantial therapeutic potential for the treatment of liver diseases.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pathology, Catholic University of Daegu, College of Medicine, Daegu, 705-718, Korea

    Ji-Hyun Park, Kyung-Hyun Kim, Soo-Jung Kim, Woo-Ram Lee & Kwan-Kyu Park

  2. Department of Agricultural Biology, National Institute of Agricultural Science and Technology, Suwon, 441-100, Korea

    Kwang-Gill Lee

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  1. Ji-Hyun Park
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Correspondence to Kwan-Kyu Park.

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Park, JH., Kim, KH., Kim, SJ. et al. Bee venom protects hepatocytes from tumor necrosis factor-α and actinomycin D. Arch. Pharm. Res. 33, 215–223 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12272-010-0205-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12272-010-0205-6

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