title: Bee venom protects hepatocytes from tumor necrosis factor-alpha and actinomycin D.
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)-alpha with actinomycin (Act) D induces apoptosis in hepatocytes. TNF-alpha/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-alpha/Act D-treated hepatocytes. BV suppressed TNF-alpha/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-alpha/Act D-treated hepatocytes and suggest that these compounds may contribute substantial therapeutic potential for the treatment of liver diseases.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Catholic University of Daegu, College of Medicine, Daegu 705-718, Korea.
authors.forename: Ji-Hyun
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: Kyung-Hyun
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Soo-Jung
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Woo-Ram
authors.initials: WR
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Kwang-Gill
authors.initials: KG
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Kwan-Kyu
authors.initials: KK
authors.lastname: Park
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D017209:Apoptosis / Q000187:drug effects*; D001514:Bee Venoms / Q000494:pharmacology*; D020169:Caspases / Q000378:metabolism; D002460:Cell Line; D045304:Cytochromes c / Q000378:metabolism; D053938:DNA Fragmentation / Q000187:drug effects; D003609:Dactinomycin / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors* / Q000494:pharmacology; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D022781:Hepatocytes / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000378:metabolism; D051379:Mice; D019253:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-bcl-2 / Q000378:metabolism; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000187:drug effects; D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors* / Q000494:pharmacology
chemical_list: D001514:Bee Venoms; D019253:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-bcl-2; D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha; D003609:Dactinomycin; D045304:Cytochromes c; D020169:Caspases