Impact of Using Different Concentrations of Bee Venom on Hematological Measures, Liver and Kidney Functions in Laboratory Mice

Abstract

The present study was designed to investigate the effects of melittin on leucocytes count, liver and renal functions after
injecting mice with six different doses of melittin [1000, 750, 500, 350, 300, and 250] µg/ml intraperitoneally. Melittin was
extracted by high performance liquid chromatography [HPLC] technique, and the content of melittin in bio toxin sample
ranged 74%, that was identified based on its retention time [RT] on the column at 5.789 min. At the beginning of the
experiment and when injected intraperitoneally, the results revealed that mice in first [1000 µg/ml] and second groups [750
µg/ml] reflected high mortality rate [100%] within a few hours, while the other groups reflected varied mortality rates
depending on the dose. Results regarding the effect of melittin on liver enzymes showed that there were significant
differences in alanine transferase [ALT] at P value = 0.01 as well as aspartate aminotransferase [AST] levels and showed
significant increase in alkaline phosphatase [ALP] level at [500, 350, 300, and 250] µg/ml, may possibly to block bile
ducts. The results on kidney functions provided high level in both creatinine and urea levels after injection with melittin,
In addition, results showed the effect of melittin on leucocytes count which was highly significant increase in the mean of
monocytes and neutrophil levels compared with lymphocytes and basophils along the test period.