• Journal of Acupuncture Research
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.191-195
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• 2006

This article presents a case report of complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) involving the ankle and foot; the bee-venom herbal acupuncture (BVH) was performed as part of a pain management program. An 46-year-old man presented with CRPS in the left lower extremity that was inadequately controlled with typical oral medication. Sympathetic block the extremity did not provide significant pain relief. However, BVH resulted in significant pain relief and improvement in patient's attitude. This case report showed that BVH may be efficacious in treating patients with CRPS. Further study is needed to determine the effects of BVH on symptoms related to CRPS.

• Journal of Acupuncture Research
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.127-133
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• 2015

Objectives : Previous studies have shown that the amount of melittin, the main active ingredient in bee venom pharmacopuncture, tends to decrease substantially with time during pharmacopuncture manufacture. This study aimed to assess whether the stability of bee venom pharmacopuncture improved with pharmacopuncture additives. Methods : Components were measured using high performance liquid chromatography. Acute toxicity and antigenicity tests by subcutaneous and venous routes were conducted at Korea Pharmaceutical Test & Research Institute and mortality, adverse reactions, and body weight changes were assessed. Results : Stability tests using additives revealed that bee venom without additives was most stable. Bee venom pharmacopuncture without additives was further tested for toxicity in subcutaneous and venous administration in mice and no changes pertaining to toxicity were found over the testing period. Conclusions : Bee venom pharmacopuncture without additives was found to be most stable, and further, it did not show toxicity or antigenicity in subcutaneous and venous administration in mice.

• Journal of Acupuncture Research
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.169-186
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• 2000

To study anti-cancer effect and molecular biological mechanism of bee venom for aqua-acupuncture, the effects of bee venom on cell viability, apoptosis, and cell cycle were analyzed using MTT assay, tryphan blue assay, [3H]thymidine release assay, flow cytometric analysis, activity of caspase-3 protease activity assay, and immunocytometric analysis of PCNA. To explore whether anti-cancer effects of bee venom are associated with the transcriptional control of gene expression, quantitative RT-PCR analysis of apoptosis- and cell cycle-related genes was performed. The obtained results are summarized as follows: 1. The MTT assay demonstrated that cell viability was decreased by bee venom in a dose-dependant manner. 2. Significant induction of apoptosis was identified using tryphan blue assay, [$^3H$]thymidine release assay, and flow cytometric analysis of sub $G_1$ fraction. 3. In analysis of caspase-3 protease activity, the activity had increased significantly, in a dose-dependant manner. 4. Quantitative RT-PCR analysis of the apoptosis-related genes showed that Bcl-2 and $Bcl-X_L$ were down-regulated whereas Bax was up-regulated by bee venom treatment. 5. In flow cytometric analysis of cell cycle and immunocytometric analysis of PCNA expression, cell numbers of $G_1$ phase was increased by a dose-dependant manner. 6. In quantitative RT-PCR analysis of the cell cycle-related genes, p21, p27, and p57 were increased, while Cyclin D1, CDK4, c-Myc, c-Fos, and Histone H3 were decreased. In contrast, there were no remarkable changes in expression levels of CDC2 and c-Jun.

• Journal of Acupuncture Research
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.69-80
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• 2006

Objectives : The occurrence of shoulder pain after attack of stroke varies from 15% to about 80% in patients. Hemiplegic shoulder pain has been shown to affect stroke outcome in a negative way that it interferes with recovery after a stroke. These following processes have been all postulated as causes of a shoulder pain: glenohumeral subluxation, spasticity, impingement, soft tissue trauma, glenohumeral capsulitis, shoulder hand syndrome. And stroke patients may suffer from pain caused by stroke itself(central post-stroke pain). The aim of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of Bee venom therapy for shoulder pain in stroke patients. Methods : To evaluate the effectiveness of Bee Venom Acupuncture Therapy, 40 patients were allocated into control and treatment group. They were monitored for 3 weeks and followed up with VAS score(with the interval of Initial(YAS1)), 1 week later(VAS2), 2 weeks later(VAS3), 3 weeks later(VAS4), Motor Grade and Passive ROM. Results : VAS score decrease in treatment group compared to control group. Bee Venom Acupuncture Therapy seems to decrease hemiplegic shoulder pain and this effect was statistically significant after 3 weeks. Therefore this therapy could be recommended for the treatment of patients with shoulder pain after stroke and further extensive clinical studies are expected. Conclusion : We suggest that GDS oral administration and electro-acupuncture at $BL_{52}$ & $GB_{39}$ are available for prevention and curing about the postmenopausal osteoporosis.

• Journal of Acupuncture Research
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.11-18
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• 2000

Bee-venom Acupucture has good effect on pain control but We may be anxious about the problem of Liver and Kidneys on many times treated patients. Therefore, In order to analysis the clinical form, We have observed the LFT, RFT of 37 patients who visited Won-Kwang University Kunpo Oriental Medical Hospital and treated Bee Venom therapy over 20 times from March 1999 to February 2000. The results were summarized as follows 1. The distribution of sex was 25 females, 12 males, and the average of patients age was 42.3 years 2. The distribution of disease was degenerative arthritis, HIVD of L-spine, HIVD of C-spine, spinal stenosis, RA, etc. 3. The total treated times is 1464 and the average of treated times is 39.6 times 4. The results of the LFT(AST, ALT) of 37 patients showed that normal impression is occupied 91.9% and abnormal impression is occupied 8.1%. 5. The results of the RFT(BLTN, Creatinine) of 37 patients showed that normal impression is occupied 100%. 6. The results of treatment using BV-acupunture showed that 81.1% achieved above excelent recovery 13.5% achieved above good recovery, 5.4% achieved fair recovery.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.6-17
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• 2022

Objectives: This study describes the implementation of a training course that aimed to increase the competency of undergraduate students of Korean medicine at a single college to obtain informed consent and perform bee venom acupuncture using an objective structured clinical examination (OSCE). Methods: We developed and implemented a short training course for 111 fourth-year students of Korean medicine during their clinical rotation at the Department of Acupuncture and Moxibustion Medicine. Lectures were conducted on the effects of and hypersensitivity reactions to bee venom acupuncture, obtaining informed consent, performing skin test and bee venom acupuncture. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, some students were offered online lectures, and some could not experience the performance of OSCE in person. A survey with 16 closed and three open questions was used to investigate self-efficacy, opinions about the online lectures, and the OSCE. Results: Out of 111 questionnaires, 104 were completed (94%). Students were generally satisfied with the online lectures and OSCE. For the subjective questionnaire about what was helpful in the training of bee venom acupuncture techniques and OSCE, the authenticity of the teaching method was recorded the highest. Conclusions: This study showed that online lectures were effective in teaching clinical skills of Korean Medicine. It is necessary to produce standard educational materials for clinical skills of Korean Medicine, and studies to analyze the reliability and validity of OSCE are needed.

• Journal of Pharmacopuncture
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.105-111
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• 2006

Objectives : This study was conducted to carry out Purification of Melittin and other peptide components from Bee Venom using gel filtration chromatography and propionic acid/urea polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis Methods : Melittin and other peptide components were separated from bee venom by using gel filtration chromatography on Sephadex G-50 column in 0.05M ammonium acetate buffer. Results : Melittin and other peptide components were separated from bee venom by using gel filtration chromatography on Sephadex G-50 column in 0.05M ammonium acetate buffer. The fractions obtained from gel filtration chromatography was analyzed by using SDS-PAGE and propionic acid/urea polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. The melittin obtained from the gel filtration contained residual amount of phospholipase $A_2$ and a protein with molecular weight of 6,000. The contaminating proteins were removed by the second gel filtration chromatography. Conclusion : Gel filtration chromatography and propionic acid/urea polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis are useful to separate peptide components including melittin from bee venom.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.618-622
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• 2005

Articular cartilage is an important target for studying the arthritic diseases. To verify the therapeutic effects of bee venom herb-acupuncture in vivo, 3${\mu}$l of diluted solution of bee venom for herb-acupuncture were injected into articular cavity once a day during 3 months after making full-thickness defects in rat articular cartilage. Histological examination and immunohistochemistry indicated that the chondrocyte-like tissue was formed during the repair process of cartilage injury, and the expression of a cartilage-specific protein, collagen type II, were significantly activated. It means that the expression of the gene encoding type I collagen was down-regulated, whereas those of collagen type II were up-regulated. Histological examination by hematoxylin-eosin staining indicated that the cells regained their original round morphology. In addition, a homogeneous distribution of articular cartilage extracellular matrices was detected around the cells. These results suggested that bee venom herb-acupuncture was very effective on the recovery of articular chondrocyte phenotype.

• Journal of Acupuncture Research
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.189-202
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• 2002

Objective : This study is designed to investigate the effects of bee venom and melittin on cell death in neuroblastoma cell line after pretreatment with NG(nerve growth inhibitory substance) Methods : It was evaluated by using MTT assay, morphological method, DNA fragmenation, flow cytometry, immunocytochemistry analysis, RT-PCR and Western blot. Results : The MTT assay demonstrated that neuroblastoma cell viability was significantly inhibited dose-dependently by treatment with bee venom and melittin after pretreatment with NG in comparison awith control. The morphological study and fow cytometry demonstrated that neuroblastoma cell showed apoptosis. DNA fragmenation showed DNA ladder below 1 Kbp. Immunocytochemistry assay demonstrated that Fos and MAPK were down-regulated. RT-PCR analysis demonstrated that Fos and MAPK was down-regulated. Western blot demonstrated that Fos and MAPK were down-regulated from $1{\mu}g/ml$ bee venom in neuroblastoma cell pretreated with NG. Conclusion : These result suggests that bee venom and melittin after NG treatment have significant anti-cancer effect and further study is needed in vivo.

• Journal of Acupuncture Research
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.232-239
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• 2001

Objective & Method : To identify current state of bee venom therapy(BVT) research as a treatment of autoimmune diseases, we reviewed the PubMed electronic database. 9 articles with clinical implications were discussed. Results : BVT is reported as effective in the treatment of such autoimmune related diseases as rheumatoid arthritis and insulin dependent diabetes mellitus in animal experiment, The lack of evidence on BVT as a treatment of multiple sclerosis deters us from reaching any determination. There also lacks firm evidences of immune response regulative or anti inflammatory mechanism of BVT. No clinicla trial was found. Conculsion : This review raises the urgent need of study to provide scientific and clinical evidences.