The Effect of Honey Bee Venom and All-trans Retinoic Acid on Proliferation and Differentiation of HL-60 Cell Line

Differentiation therapy is one of the methods for treatment of cancer. In this method, some drugs such as All-trans Retinoic Acid, are used which can inhibit proliferation of cancerous cells and induce cell differentiation. Previus experiments showed some anti-proliferation materials, anti-inflammation materials or anti-oxidant materials could influence the effects of such drugs and decrease resulting side effects. In this research the effects of the Honey Bee Venom, on All-trans Retinoic Acid functions was measured. In this experimental project we used HL-60 cell line belonging to acute promyelocyte leukemia. The HL-60 cell line was obtained from Pasteur Institute of Iran, and were grown in RPMI 1640 medium (Roswell Park Memorial Institute) containing 10% FBS (Fetal Bovine Serum) and 1% streptomycin-penicilin. We used MTT (3-(4,5-Dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-Diphenyltetrazolium bromide) and NBT (Nitro-Blue tetrazolium chloride) tests for these purposes. All experiments were done three times and data were analyzed using SPSS. Both Honey Bee Venom and All-trans Retinoic Acid could inhibit proliferation of HL-60 cells, also All-trans Retinoic Acid could induce differentiation in this cells. The amount of differentiation was increased significantly (p<0.01) in the presence of Honey Bee Venom. On the base of our findings, it seemed that Honey Bee Venom could increase anti cancer effects of All-trans Retinoic Acid.