Respiratory inflammation is a frequent and fatal pathologic state encountered in veterinary medicine. Although diluted bee venom (dBV) has potent anti-inflammatory effects, the clinical use of dBV is limited to several chronic inflammatory diseases. The present study was designed to propose an acupoint dBV treatment as a novel therapeutic strategy for respiratory inflammatory disease. Experimental pleurisy was induced by injection of carrageenan into the left pleural space in mouse. The dBV was injected into a specific lung meridian acupoint (LU5) or into an arbitrary non-acupoint located near the midline of the back in mouse. The inflammatory responses were evaluated by analyzing inflammatory indicators in pleural exudate. The dBV injection into the LU5 acupoint significantly suppressed the carrageenan-induced increase of pleural exudate volume, leukocyte accumulation, and myeloperoxidase activity. Moreover, dBV acupoint treatment effectively inhibited the production of IL-1β, but not TNF-α in the pleural exudate. On the other hand, dBV treatment at non-acupoint did not inhibit the inflammatory responses in carrageenan-induced pleurisy. The present results demonstrate that dBV stimulation in the LU5 lung meridian acupoint can produce significant anti-inflammatory effects on carrageenan-induced pleurisy suggesting that dBV acupuncture may be a promising alternative medicine therapy for respiratory inflammatory diseases.

Keywords: Bee venom, Acupuncture, Pleurisy, Anti-inflammation