Bee Venom Decreases LPS-Induced Inflammatory Responses in Bovine Mammary Epithelial Cells

Abstract

The world dairy industry has long been challenged by bovine mastitis, an inflammatory disease, which causes economic loss due to decreased milk production and quality. Attempts have been made to prevent or treat this disease with multiple approaches, primarily through increased abuse of antibiotics, but effective natural solutions remain elusive. Bee venom (BV) contains a variety of peptides (, melittin) and shows multiple bioactivities, including prevention of inflammation. Thus, in the current study, it was hypothesized that BV can reduce inflammation in bovine mammary epithelial cells (MAC-T). To examine the hypothesis, cells were treated with LPS (1 μg/ml) to induce an inflammatory response and the anti-inflammatory effects of BV (2.5 and 5 μg/ml) were investigated. The cellular mechanisms of BV against LPS-induced inflammation were also investigated. Results showed that BV can attenuate expression of an inflammatory protein, COX2, and pro-inflammatory cytokines such as IL-6 and TNF-α. Activation of NF-κB, an inflammatory transcription factor, was significantly downregulated by BV in cells treated with LPS, through dephosphorylation of ERK1/2. Moreover, pretreatment of cells with BV attenuated LPS-induced production of intracellular reactive oxygen species (, superoxide anion). These results support our hypothesis that BV can decrease LPS-induced inflammatory responses in bovine mammary epithelial cells through inhibition of oxidative stress, NF-κB, ERK1/2, and COX-2 signaling.

Protective Effects of Bee Venom against Endotoxemia-Related Acute Kidney Injury in Mice

“…Previous studies showed that the administration of bee venom suppressed production of inflammatory cytokines in other experimental models of renal injury [ 13 , 14 ]. Bee venom decreased LPS-induced production of inflammatory cytokines in bovine mammary epithelial cells [ 22 ] and human keratinocytes [ 23 ] through suppression of the NF-κB signaling pathway. We also reported that bee venom decreased the production of inflammatory cytokines in an animal model of atherosclerosis induced by an atherogenic diet in combination with LPS [ 24 ].…”

C-C motif chemokine ligand 2 induces proliferation and prevents lipopolysaccharide-induced inflammatory responses in bovine mammary epithelial cells

“…To overcome this problem, antibiotics have been used for a long time, which is now of concern to consumers. In response to concerns of society, researchers are interested in factors that have anti-inflammatory effects in bovine mammary epithelial cells (Jeong et al, 2017;Yu et al, 2017). In MAC-T cells, CCL2 inhibited the expression of NF-κB, IL-6, and IL-8, which were increased by LPS, and restored proliferation of MAC-T cells.…”

Bovine mastitis: risk factors, therapeutic strategies, and alternative treatments — A review

“…Use of animal-derived compounds in treating bovine mastitis has been concentrated on bee products recently. Bee venom, containing the active component melittin, was administered to LPS-induced MAC-T cells to study its anti-inflammatory effect [103]. Authors found out that bee venom was able to attenuate the LPS-induced COX-2 protein expression, and also mRNA expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines TNF-α and IL-6, by down-regulating phosphorylation of ERK1/2 and nuclear translocation of NF-κB.…”