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.