ABSTRACT
Background Diabetes is a metabolic disorder that is characterized by chronic high blood glucose levels that causes complications in the eyes, kidneys, heart, vessels and nerves. Currently diabetic nephropathy is the most significant long-term complications in terms of morbidity and mortality for individual patients with diabetes. Honey bee venom can be considered as a natural remedy for diabetes due to its blood glucose levels lowering and lipid-regulating effect on diabetic rabbits. Aim The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of Mongolian honey bee venom (Apis mellifera) on renal dysfunction in alloxan induced diabetic rabbits. Material and Method Twenty two Chinchilla rabbits were divided into three groups: control (n=6), diabetic (n=8), and bee venom treated (n=8). The diabetic group was injected with 5% solution of Alloxan monohydrate 100 mg/kg intravenously behind the ear for 2 minutes to induce diabetes. The bee venom treated group received a bee sting (a sting contains 0.2-0.5 ml of bee venom) on their hind paw every day after their diagnosis of diabetes. Result Bee venom treatment (BVT) led to the following changes: compared to the diabetic group, the bee venom treated group’s blood glucose levels lowered between 14.9% and 26.5%; the plasma creatinine and urea levels were decreased respectively by 19,8% and 14.8%. Blood urea nitrogen (BUN) levels were reduced by 14.8%. Conclusion: Treatment with Mongolian bee venom lowered the blood glucose levels and prevents the renal dysfunction in alloxan induced diabetic rabbits
ABSTRACT
Introduction In 19th century, researchers proved at biochemical level the healing properties of bee products such as bee venom, honey, royal jelly, pollen, propolis and wax. The object of our research is the Apis cerena’s venom properties1-2. Asiatic honey bee or Apis cerana is small honey are small honey bees of southern and southeastern Asia, such as China, India, Japan, Malaysia, Nepal, Bangladesh and Papua New Guinea3. This species is also known as the Himalayan hive honeybee. This species is the sister species of Apis koschevnikovi, and both are in the same sub¬genus as the Western (European) honey bee, Apis mellifera4. Goal The purpose of our research is to study property and potential of bee venom and its effect on immune system. Heal¬ing property of Apis cerana was high. This study proves that bee venom therapy stimulates immunity. Materialis and Methods The research was conducted at the Scientific Research Center of “Monos” Institute of Traditional Medicine and in biochemical Laboratory of “Khuljborjigon” Clinic. For the experiment, we used 23 perfectly healthy mice of same sex and size which meets standards of laboratory testing. We put a bee sting to 0.5 ml of 10% red blood cell (RBC) solution and measured time of heamolysis to de¬fine bee venom potential/capability by Shkenderov S., Ivanov Ts., (1985) method. Following Erne (1963), Kovalev I.E.,(1976), Petrov’s (1980) methodology of studying effects on immune system, we have stung bee venom to 23 mice on the acupuncture point of hind paw every other day in total 3 times. On third day of the experiment, we in¬jected into vein 2ml of 10 % sheep’s RBC to stimulate the immunity. On the fifth day, we defined weight of pancreas, number of pancreatic cells, pancreatic index, and haemagglutination titre. Results Potential of bee venom is determined by speed of heamolysis when bee sting is placed in the 0.5 ml of 10% RBC solution. If we place one bee sting into 1ml of RBC solution then the speed of heamolysis is 46 seconds, when two stings are place speed is 38 seconds and when 3 stings placed then time is 30. Compare to usual speed of heamolysis which is 60 seconds, change in time depending on the number of bee stings proves the effectiveness of bee venom (Table 1). In figure 3, the number of spleen cells of control group’s was 142.71±55.51*106/ml. this is 1.2 times lower compare to normal group which is 172.67±135.5*106/ml. BVT group’s number of spleen cells was 329.78±187.78*106/ml and 1.61 times bigger than in control group. In comparison to control group, haemagglutina¬tion titre of BVT group was 1.13 times higher (BVT group 54.86±19.95%; control group 50±8.83%, p<0.05) and this indicates that BV has immunity stimulating effect. Conclusions From our experiment we can conclude the following 1. Apis mellifera’s bee venom has high treating effect. 2. Bee venom therapy has immunity stimulating activity.