Royal Jelly Inhibits the Production of Proinflammatory Cytokines by Activated Macrophages

Abstract

In this study, we have examined the anti-inflammatory actions of royal jelly (RJ) at a cytokine level. When supernatants of RJ suspensions were added to a culture of mouse peritoneal macrophages stimulated with lipopolysaccharide and IFN-gamma, the production of proinflammatory cytokines, such as TNF-alpha, IL-6, and IL-1, was efficiently inhibited in a dose-dependent manner without having cytotoxic effects on macrophages. This suggests that RJ contains factor(s) responsible for the suppression of proinflammatory cytokine secretion. We named the factor for honeybees RJ-derived anti-inflammatory factor (HBRJ-AIF), and further investigated the molecular aspects of it. Size fractionation study showed that HBRJ-AIF is composed of substances of low (< 5 kDa) and high (> 30 kDa) molecular weights, with the former being a major component. Chromatographic analysis showed that MRJP3 is one candidate for the HBRJ-AIF with high molecular weights. Thus, our results suggest that RJ has anti-inflammatory actions through inhibiting proinflammatory cytokine production by activated macrophages.

Effect of Royal Jelly on Bisphenol A-Induced Proliferation of Human Breast Cancer Cells

“…4,5) In this study, we identified an effect of royal jelly on the proliferation of MCF-7 cells stimulated by BPA. Royal jelly was supplied by the Yamada Apiculture Center (Okayama, Japan).…”

Comparative Study on Quality Parameters of Royal Jelly, Apilarnil and Queen Bee Larvae Triturate

“…Commercial RJ is obtained by harvesting the brood food from the queen cell in the 3rd day of larval development (ISO 12824:2016). (Fujii et al, 1990;Kohno et al, 2004), immunoregulatory (Okamoto et al, 2003;Vucevic et al, 2007), insulin-like (Dixit and Patel, 1964;Kramer et al, 1982), estrogen signaling mediating (Moutsatsou et al, 2010), antiaging (Inoue et al, 2003), reducing cholesterol levels (Kashima et al, 2014), vasodilation (Tokunaga et al, 2004).…”

Determination of royal jelly freshness by ELISA with a highly specific anti-apalbumin 1, major royal jelly protein 1 antibody

“…Previous studies have demonstrated a wide range of health benefits to humans and model organisms, including vasodilative and hypotensive activities (Tokunaga et al, 2004), antitumor (Tamura et al, 1987), anti-inflammatory (Fujii et al, 1990;Kohno et al, 2004), antibacterial and disinfectant properties (Fujiwara et al, 1990;Shen et al, 2010a), antifatigue activity (Kamakura et al, 2001a), and increasing the average lifespan in mice (Inoue et al, 2003) and nematodes (Honda et al, 2011). Because of its great potential benefits to human health, RJ is widely used as a key component in many commercial products including medicine, dietary supplements, and cosmetics (Kamakura et al, 2001c).…”