Determination of Apoptotic Doses of Bee Venom on Human Promyelocytic Leukemia Cells

Recently, researchers have reported that BV (Bee Venom) has a potent anti inflammatory, anti tumor and anticancer effects. Besides, one of the essential aim in cancer therapy is restoring apoptosis. The Objective in this study was determination of apoptotic concentration induced by BV (Autumn, Semnan) on HL60 cancer cells. In this study, HL60 cells were purchased from the Pasteur Institute in Tehran and were grown in RPMI-1640 medium supplemented with 10% FBS and 1% antibiotics (including penicillin and streptomycin) in the plate. After 2 hours, the cells were exposed by BV concentrations (2.5, 5, 7.5,12,15 µg/ml) for 24, 48, 72 hours. After passing desired time, the morphology of cells was determined under inverted microscope and cell viability was studied by MTT assay and determination of cell death was evaluated by flow cytometery assay and Hoescht staining. The morphological analysis and the results from Hoescht staining & flowcytometery Annexin V antibody exhibited that the cell death induced by BV was significantly apoptosis and bee venom by concentration of 12 µg/ml results in %50 of apoptosis cell death. Our findings from this study showed that using lower dosage of BV during 48h treatment period cause inhibition of proliferation in time and dose dependent manner and higher dosage of 15 µg/ml cause cell lysis and necrosis. Experimental data showed that 12 µg/ml is inducer of apoptosis in HL60 cells.