The effect of bee honey on the proliferative activity of human B- and T-lymphocytes and the activity of phagocytes

The effect of bee honey (BH) taken from Apis melifica on human peripheral blood lymphocytes and neutrophils was studied using lymphocyte blastogenic 3-[4,5-dimethylthiazole-2-yl]-2, 5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide (MTT) and quantitative nitroblue tetrazolium (NBT) assays, respectively. Bee honey showed a mitogenic effect on both B- and T-lymphocytes. Stimulated by lipopolysaccharide (LPS) at 0.1% BH, B-cells showed maximum stimulator?, index (0.838 +/- 0.14 relative to 0.521 +/- 0.09). Stimulated by concanavalin A (Con A) or phytohemagglutinin (PHA) in the presence of 0.2% BH, T-cells showed maximum stimulatory index of 0.820 +/- 0.12 and 0.712 +/- 0.09 compared to controls of 0.531 +/- 0.07 and 0.648 +/- 0.08, respectively In addition, in the absence of classical mitogens, BH also stimulated B- and T-cells with stimulatory indices of 0.247 +/- 0.03 and 0.34 +/- 0.04, respectively. In the absence of LPS, maximum NET uptake (fmol of formazan per phagocyte) by neutrophils was achieved at 0.2% BH (1.53 +/- 0.23 compared to 1.29 +/- 0.08) but no significant (p > 0.05) effect of BH was found in the presence of LPS.