• Korean Journal of Pharmacognosy
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.366-370
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• 2011

Bee venom (BV) has been used as a treatment for a wide variety of ailments such as inflammatory diseases in korean traditional medicine. Despite its well documented anti-inflammatory property, it has not been fully demonstrated regarding the influence of BV against Propionibactierium acnes (P. acnes), which promotes follicular inflammation (inflammatory acne). This study evaluated the anti-inflammatory property of BV against P. acnes in vivo. To induce inflammation in vivo using P. acnes, $1{\times}10^7$ CFU of living P. acnes were intradermally injected into the ear of mice. BV (1, 10, 100 ${\mu}g$) in vaseline was applied epicutaneously on the ear resulting in P. acnes-induced ear swelling and inflammation. Epicutaneous administration of BV with P. acnes decreased the number of infiltrated inflammatory cells and inflammatory cytokines in the ear, thereby relieving P. acnes-induced ear swelling and granulomatous inflammation, especially at the dose of 1 ${\mu}g$ of BV. In this report, we demonstrated the therapeutic effects of BV on P. acnes-induced inflammation in vivo using the mouse model. These data highlight the potential of using BV as an alternative treatment to the antibiotic therapy of acne vulgaris.