Potential Anti-Apoptotic Impacts and Telomerase Activity of Royal Jelly on Different Tissues of Rats

Abstract

ackground and Aim: Royal jelly (RJ) has a broad range of pharmaceutical activities, including antioxidant, anti-aging, anti-tumor, and anti-apoptotic. The current study aimed to investigate RJ impacts on cell survival by measuring the amount of telomerase enzyme, protein BCL2, and BAX in different tissues of rats. Methods: In this study, male Wistar rats (n=21) were randomly divided into 3 groups; Group 1 was the control group. Group 2 and group 3 were treated with royal jelly at a concentration of 150 mg/kg and 300 mg/kg for 30 days, respectively. The contents of Bax, BCL-2, and telomerase in the tissues Brain, Liver, Kidney, and lymphocytes were measured using the ELISA method. Results: Telomerase increased in all the tissues involved in both treatment groups compared to the control group; however, the changes were not statistically significant. Although BAX and BCL-2 proteins showed irregular patterns, the ratio of BAX/BCL-2 declined in almost all the studied tissues with a significant decline in the rats’ liver and kidney treated with RJ at the dose of 300 mg/kg and in the lymphocytes of the group administered 150 mg/kg of RJ. Conclusion: RJ appears to have potential anti-apoptotic effects on the rats’ tissues studied via regulating the levels of BAX, BCL-2, and telomerase proteins. Regarding telomerase, its levels increased in a dose-dependent manner in all involved tissues. Concerning the ratio of BAX/BCL-2, it is sensible to conclude that RJ tends to positively impact the cell survival rate at the dose of 300 mg/kg in the brain, Liver, and Kidney. Nonetheless, this ratio decreased more significantly at the dose of 150 mg/kg in lymphocytes, showing more potential to survive brain cells in this concentration. *Corresponding Author: Seyed-Hosein Abtahi-Eivary; Email: [email protected]; ORCID ID:0000-0001-5807-8933 Please cite this article as: Khani-Eshratabadi M, Talebpour A, Bagherzadeh A, Mehranfar P, Motallebzadeh Khanmiri J, Ghorbani M, Abtahi-Eivary SH. Potential Anti-Apoptotic Impacts and Telomerase Activity of Royal Jelly on Different Tissues of Rats. Arch Med Lab Sci. 2022;8:1-10 (e3). https://doi.org/10.22037/amls.v8.3653