Effects of honey bee venom on neuronal differentiation of pheochoromocytoma cell line (PC12)

The rat pheochromocytoma cell line, (PC12) will differentiate through in vitro condition by some factors such as nerve growth factor (NGF) and convert into neuron-like cells. Bee venom (BV) contain different components such as phospholipase 2(PLA2) which has differentiational effect on PC12 cells by itself but the effect of BV as a whole biological product has not been well known, So, in this study, the effects of bee venum on differentiation of PC12 was studied. In this experimental study, the PC12 cells were seeded in the culture medium (RPMI-1640) at 5× 103 cell/well in poly-D-lysine (0.05 mg/ml) coated 24-well culture plates, and were treated with NGF with the concentration of 50 ng/ml and the bee venom with the concentrations of 1 µg/ml and 3 µg/ml. The viability of PC12 cells were analyzed by using MTT assay, and cell differentiation were surveyed morphologically and the neurite outgrowth were measured and the neuronal like cells were confirmed by enzymatically method (AChE activity assay). The results confirmed the differentiotional effect of BV at the low dosage and this effect was increased when the BV and NGF were used together. We conclude that BV and NGF may use in cell therapy to induce differentiation of undifferentiated cells. This study showed that BV at the low dosage lead to cell death and at the high dosage convert PC12 cells to neuronal- like cells. Concurrent use of BV and NGF may use in cell therapy to induce differentiation of undifferentiated cells.