The effect of bee venom on ovalbumin-induced asthma model (55.13)

Abstract

Abstract Asthma is a chronic disease marked by airway hyperreactivity and inflammation. Bee venom(BV) has been traditionally used in oriental medicine to relieve pain and to treat chronic inflammatory diseases. Some recent reports suggest that BV maybe an effective treatment for patients with asthma. However, there are still some unanswered questions relating to efficacy of BV therapy in asthma. The CD4+CD25+Foxp3+ regulatory T cell(Treg) play an important role in regulating the immune response. Treg can reduce inflammation and allergic reactions through its inhibitory functions. In this study, we reasoned that BV inhibits inflammatory diseases by effect on Treg and examined the effect of BV in naïve mice. Diverse concentration was treated everyday for 5days and BV significantly expanded Treg on 1mg/kg concentration. This result proposes that BV can attenuate asthma. We used 7-10 weeks female Balb/c mice were sensitized with ovalbumin(OVA). As a result, BV decreased inflammatory cytokine secretion including IL-4, IL-5, IL-13 in bronchoalveolar lavage(BAL) fluid. Also BV was significantly decrease structural remodeling of the airway. The number of Neutrophil, Lymphocyte, Macrophage, and total cells were significantly lower in the BV group than the OVA group. These results suggest that BV has potential therapeutic value for controlling asthma responses resulting from exposure to allergens.