title: Intravenous Single Dose Toxicity of Sweet Bee Venom in Sprague-Dawley Rats.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Anaphylactic shock can be fatal to people who become hypersensitive when bee venom pharmacopuncture (BVP) is used. Thus, sweet bee venom (SBV) was developed to reduce these allergic responses. SBV is almost pure melittin, and SBV has been reported to have fewer allergic responses than BVP. BVP has been administered only into acupoints or intramuscularly, but we thought that intravenous injection might be possible if SBV were shown to be a safe medium. The aim of this study is to evaluate the intravenous injection toxicity of SBV through a single-dose test in Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats.
  
  
  METHODS
  Male and female 6-week-old SD rats were injected intravenously with SBV (high dosage: 1.0 mL/animal; medium dosage: 0.5 mL/animal; low dosage: 0.1 mL/animal). Normal saline was injected into the control group in a similar method. We conducted clinical observations, body weight measurements, and hematology, biochemistry, and histological observations.
  
  
  RESULTS
  No death was observed in any of the experimental groups. Hyperemia was observed in the high and the medium dosage groups on the injection day, but from next day, no general symptoms were observed in any of the experimental groups. No significant changes due to intravenous SBV injection were observed in the weights, in the hematology, biochemistry, and histological observations, and in the local tolerance tests.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results of this study confirm that the lethal dose of SBV is over 1.0 mL/animal in SD rats and that the intravenous injection of SBV is safe in SD rats.
authors.affiliation: Department of Acupuncture &Moxibustion Medicine, Sangji University College of Korean Medicine, Wonju, Korea.
authors.forename: Kwang-Ho
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Department of Sasang Constitutional Medicine, Sangji University College of Korean Medicine, Wonju, Korea.
authors.forename: JunSang
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Sangji University College of Korean Medicine, Wonju, Korea.
authors.forename: Seungho
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: Research Center of the Korean Pharmacopuncture Institute, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: KiRok
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kwon
keywords: bee venom; intravenous injection; melittin; toxicity test