The Effects of Bee Venom on Squamous Cells Carcinoma (KB) Compared with Fibroblast L929 Cells

The 5-year survival interval rate in patients with head and neck SCC is about 50% and the current therapies were not potent to treatment this malignancy in four decades. The melittin, phospholipase and Apamin in bee venom have antitumor effects on cancer cells like kidney, liver, bladder and prostate.this study is the first survey was aimed to investigate the inhibitory effects of natural bee venom on the SCC.
This in vitro study was conducted on two cell lines, squamous cells carcinoma (KB) and Fibroblasts (L929) cells. Micro culture Tetrazolium Test (MTT) was used to assess Cytotoxicity. Data was analyzed by means of one-way ANOVA and Tukey in the packages IBM SPSS statistics 22 (α = 0.05).
The results showed that malignant cells Cytotoxicity of bee venom in concentrations less than 0.6 mg/ml was not significantly different in both cell lines (p value > 0.05) but at the concentrations up to 0.6 mg/ml this Cytotoxicity is significantly higher in KB cells against to L929 (p value This study showed that Bee venom has a growth inhibitory effect on SCC cells with a dose-dependent and time-independent pattern that this effect is significantly higher on the malignant cells against to the normal cells.