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eCAM Advance Access published online on April 24, 2006

eCAM, doi:10.1093/ecam/nel019
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© The Author (2006). Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.
Received March 15, 2006
Accepted March 16, 2006

Original Article

Royal Jelly Prevents Osteoporosis in Rats: Beneficial Effects in Ovariectomy Model and in Bone Tissue Culture Model

Saburo Hidaka 1 *, Yoshizo Okamoto 2, Satoshi Uchiyama 3, Akira Nakatsuma 4, Ken Hashimoto 4, S. Tsuyoshi Ohnishi 5, and Masayoshi Yamaguchi 3

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
5 Philadelphia Biomedical Research Institute, King of Prussia, PA, USA

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
Saburo Hidaka, E-mail: sabrnrn{at}college.fdcnet.ac.jp


   Abstract

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 17{beta}-estradiol and OVX given its vehicle, respectively. The Ovariectomy decreased tibial bone mineral density (BMD) by 24%. Administration of 17{beta}-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 17{beta}-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.
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