Injection of bee venom into one hindpaw of rat can elicit acute inflammation together with spontaneous pain, heat hyperalgesia and mechanical hyperalgesia/allodynia in the injected paw. 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT)1A receptor is the predominant receptor subtype in the spinal dorsal horn mediating the function of 5-HT in nociception. The goal of the present study is to assess the role of 5-HT1A receptor in the pain associated with the bee venom induced inflammation. Here we showed that 1 or 4 h after a subcutaneous bee venom challenge, expression of 5-HT1A receptor mRNA in the ipsilateral lumbar spinal cord increased significantly by 80.94 or 37.86%, respectively. Antisense oligodeoxynucleotide knockdown of spinal 5-HT1A receptor attenuated spontaneous pain and reversed heat hyperalgesia in rats injected with bee venom. Thus, the present data suggest a facilitating role for 5-HT1A receptor in bee venom induced inflammatory pain.