Department of Acupuncture & Moxibustion, Kyung Hee University Hospital at Gangdong, Seoul 05278, Korea.
Age-Related and Brain Diseases Research Center, School of Medicine, Kyung Hee University, Seoul 02447, Korea.
Toxins (Basel). 2021 Sep 16;13(9):661. doi: 10.3390/toxins13090661.
Bee venom (BV) acupuncture has anti-inflammatory and analgesic effects; therefore, it was used as a traditional Korean medicine for various musculoskeletal disorders, especially arthritis. In this study, we investigated the effect of BV on monosodium urate (MSU) crystal-induced acute gouty rats. An intra-articular injection of MSU crystal suspension (1.25 mg/site) was administered to the tibiotarsal joint of the hind paw of Sprague Dawley rats to induce MSU crystal-induced gouty arthritis. Colchicine (30 mg/kg) was orally administered 1 h before MSU crystal injection as a positive control, and BV (0.5 mg/kg) was injected into the tibiotarsal joint immediately after MSU crystal injection. The ankle thickness, mechanical allodynia, and expression of proinflammatory cytokines (TNF-α, IL-1β, IL6, COX2 and iNOS) and chemokines (MIP-1α, MIP-1β, MCP-1, GRO-α, MIP-2α) were then evaluated. BV reduced the expression of proinflammatory cytokines and chemokines, which are important mediators of MSU crystal-induced inflammatory responses. This anti-inflammatory effect was also confirmed histologically to attenuate synovitis and neutrophil infiltration. We demonstrated that BV markedly ameliorated ankle edema and mechanical allodynia in gouty rats. These results suggest that BV acupuncture is a potential clinical therapy for acute gouty management.
蜂毒（BV）针灸具有抗炎和镇痛作用；因此，它被用作一种传统的韩国医学，用于治疗各种肌肉骨骼疾病，特别是关节炎。在这项研究中，我们研究了 BV 对单钠尿酸盐（MSU）晶体诱导的急性痛风性大鼠的影响。将 MSU 晶体悬浮液（1.25 mg/部位）关节内注射到后爪的跖跗关节中，以诱导 MSU 晶体诱导的痛风性关节炎。秋水仙碱（30 mg/kg）在 MSU 晶体注射前 1 小时口服给药作为阳性对照，而 BV（0.5 mg/kg）在 MSU 晶体注射后立即注射到跖跗关节中。然后评估踝关节厚度、机械性痛觉过敏以及促炎细胞因子（TNF-α、IL-1β、IL6、COX2 和 iNOS）和趋化因子（MIP-1α、MIP-1β、MCP-1、GRO-α、MIP-2α）的表达。BV 降低了促炎细胞因子和趋化因子的表达，这些是 MSU 晶体诱导的炎症反应的重要介质。这种抗炎作用也通过减轻滑膜炎和中性粒细胞浸润在组织学上得到证实。我们证明 BV 显著改善了痛风大鼠的踝关节肿胀和机械性痛觉过敏。这些结果表明，BV 针灸是急性痛风管理的一种潜在临床治疗方法。
