Components of red dwarf honeybee Apis florea Fabricius, 1787 Venom and its effect on male rats

Abstract

Venom of red dwarf honeybee was collected from venom sac of the bees. Average dried weight of venom was 0.016 + 0.0004 mg per bee (n=500). The components of venom were analyzed by RP-HPLC. Determinated the peptide mass fingerprint by MALDI-TOF Mass spectrometry. Three major components such as apamine, pla2 and melittin were found as in A. mellifera. Other seven subfractions were collected and they were not matched with amino acid sequence in database of protein venom from Mascot search. The effects of A. florea venom on liver, kidney and blood tissues of male rats were also investigated. The venom was injected into subcutaneous layer of rats at concentration of 0.5 and 0.25 mg/kg (in PBS 0.1 ml) for the treatment groups and PBS 0.1 ml was used for a control group. Liver and kidney tissues of rats were collected for histological study at the time point of 2, 8 and 24 hours after treated with venom. The liver tissue of both treatment groups showed significant different of many red blood cells in the sinusoid capillaries and increasing of Kupffer cells number from a control group. A few number of lipid droplets was found in hepatocyte and there was not difference from a control group. The kidney tissue of treated groups showed significant different of many red blood cells in cortex, medulla, tubule and pycnotic nucleus. Increasing of neutrophils and decreasing of lymphocytes were showed significant different from control group. The characters of increasing of Kupffer cells, many red blood cells infiltration in sinusoid of liver tissues, cortex, medulla, tubule and pycnotic nucleus in kidney tissues and the changing number of white blood cells suggested that venom of A. florea might be a cause of liver, kidney tissues damage and have the effects to immune system.