Effects of giant honey bee (Apis dorsata) venom on renal failure in rats (Rattus norvegicus)

Abstract

In recent decades, massive attacks with several hundred bee stings causing severe injury and inducing acute renal failure have been reported in many countries including Thailand. However, there have been no studies of the effects of giant honey bee Apis dorsata stings on animal tissue. This study thus aimed to investigate the effects of A. dorsata venom on renal failure in male rats (Rattus norvegicus) using three dosages of venom prepared by dissolving the venom in .85% NaCl (normal saline): 30.0 μg/g body weight (high dose, HD); 20.0 μg/g body weight (low dose, LD); and .0 μg/g body weight for the control (CO). The rats were injected with 200 μl of each dose. After 24 h, renal tissues were collected and processed by paraffin technique, stained with periodic acid-Schiff’s reagent and Masson’s trichrome stain for histological structure analyses. The findings showed that Bowman’s space of HD rats was significantly narrower than those of LD and CO (F2 = 3.94, p ≤ .0201). Moreover, the percentage of destructural glomeruli of HD was significantly higher than those of LD and CO, these were 44.14 ± 2.41%, 29.65 ± 1.20%, and 10.76 ± 1.74%, respectively (F2 = 676.02, p ≤ .0001). In addition, the HD rats also showed the highest injury of brush borders of proximal convoluted tubules (F2,4 = 848.09, p ≤ .0001). The impaired tubular cell nuclei were observed in the dosed groups. These results indicate that experimental doses of bee venom can cause signs of renal failure in the rat model.