eCAM Advance Access originally published online on April 24, 2006
eCAM 2006 3(3):339-348; doi:10.1093/ecam/nel019
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© 2006 The Author(s)
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/uk/) which permits unrestricted non-commerical use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Royal Jelly Prevents Osteoporosis in Rats: Beneficial Effects in Ovariectomy Model and in Bone Tissue Culture Model
1 Department of Dental Hygiene, Fukuoka College of Health Sciences Fukuoka, Japan, 2 Department of Dental Engineering, Section of Bioengineering, Fukuoka Dental College Fukuoka, Japan, 3 Laboratory of Endocrinology and Molecular Metabolism, Graduate School of Nutritional Sciences, University of Shizuoka Shizuoka, Japan, 4 Institute for Health Science, Yamada Apiculture Center Inc. Okayama, Japan, and 5 Philadelphia Biomedical Research Institute, King of Prussia PA, USA
Royal jelly (RJ) has been used worldwide for many years as medical products, health foods and cosmetics. Since RJ contains testosterone and has steroid hormone-type activities, we hypothesized that it may have beneficial effects on osteoporosis. We used both an ovariectomized rat model and a tissue culture model. Rats were divided into eight groups as follows: sham-operated (Sham), ovariectomized (OVX), OVX given 0.5% (w/w) raw RJ, OVX given 2.0% (w/w) RJ, OVX given 0.5% (w/w) protease-treated RJ (pRJ), OVX given 2.0% (w/w) pRJ, OVX given 17ß-estradiol and OVX given its vehicle, respectively. The Ovariectomy decreased tibial bone mineral density (BMD) by 24%. Administration of 17ß-estradiol to OVX rats recovered the tibial BMD decrease by 100%. Administration of 2.0% (w/w) RJ and 0.5–2.0% (w/w) pRJ to OVX rats recovered it by 85% or more. These results indicate that both RJ and pRJ are almost as effective as 17ß-estradiol in preventing the development of bone loss induced by ovariectomy in rats. In tissue culture models, both RJ and pRJ increased calcium contents in femoral-diaphyseal and femoral-metaphyseal tissue cultures obtained from normal male rats. However, in a mouse marrow culture model, they neither inhibited the parathyroid hormone (PTH)-induced calcium loss nor affected the formation of osteoclast-like cells induced by PTH in mouse marrow culture system. Therefore, our results suggest that both RJ and pRJ may prevent osteoporosis by enhancing intestinal calcium absorption, but not by directly antagonizing the action of PTH.
Keywords: bone mineral density – bone tissue culture – ovariectomized rats – post-menopausal osteoporosis model – protease-treated RJ – royal jelly
For reprints and all correspondence: Saburo Hidaka, Department of Dental Hygiene, Fukuoka College of Health Sciences, 2-15-1, Tamura, Sawara-Ku, Fukuoka 814-0193, Japan. Tel: +81-92-801-0411 ext. 108; Fax: +81-92-801-4473; E-mail: sabrnrn{at}college.fdcnet.ac.jp
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