Abstract

Objectives: Bee venom (BV) is a widely used therapy in Traditional East Asian Medicine (TEAM). We previously reported that BV was clinically effective for treating Parkinson’s disease, that phospholipase A2 (PLA2) was the main component of BV, and that it induced regulatory T cells (Tregs) by binding CD206 on dendritic cells (DCs). Therefore, we aimed to reconfirm our findings in human blood samples and investigate the relationship between CD206+ DCs and clinical syndrome differentiation in TEAM. Methods: We surveyed 100 subjects with questionnaires on cold-heat patternization and obtained their blood samples. The obtained human peripheral blood monocytes (hPBMCs) were washed with phosphate-buffered saline (PBS). After resuspension with ex vivo media, numbers of cells were counted. Tregs were counted after culturing the samples in a 37℃ CO2 incubator for 72 h. Results: We divided the subjects into a relatively high CD206+ group or a relatively low CD206+ group. The heat factor scores of high CD206+ group were significantly higher than that of low CD206+ group (high vs low: 239.2 ± 54.1 vs 208.4 ± 55.1, p=0.023). After culturing with PLA2, Tregs increased in the high CD206+ group but decreased in the low CD206+ group. Conclusion: In this study, we reconfirm that CD206+ DCs induced Treg differentiation by incubating human blood samples with PLA2 and that they showed an association with syndrome differentiation, especially with heat patterns, in TEAM. A heat pattern in TEAM might be one indication for PLA2 therapy because its score was elevated in the high CD206+ group.