RESEARCH PAPER
Administration of Greek Royal Jelly produces fast response in neurotransmission of aged Wistar male rats
 
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1
Department of Experimental and Clinical Pharmacology, Medical University, Warsaw, Centre for Preclinical Research and Technology (CePT), Warsaw, Poland
 
2
Department of Pharmacognosy and Chemistry of Natural Products, School of Pharmacy, University of Athens, Athens, Greece
 
 
Corresponding author
Ewa Widy-Tyszkiewicz   

Department of Experimental and Clinical Pharmacology, Medical University, Warsaw, Centre for Preclinical Research and Technology (CePT), Warsaw, Poland
 
 
J Pre Clin Clin Res. 2015;9(2):151-157
 
KEYWORDS
ABSTRACT
Introduction:
Royal Jelly (RJ) is a popular bee-derived product used widely in European and Asian traditional medicine. RJ has some pharmacological activities to support health and longevity as well as prevent ageing.

Objectives:
To evaluate whether a short-term 6-day Royal Jelly administration is able to induce behavioural and neurochemical effects in aged rats.

Materials and method:
RJ (previously chemically characterized by GC-FID and GC–MS) was given to 18-month-old male Wistar rats (100 and 500mg of powder/kg b.w./day) in subcutaneous injection for 6 days. Spatial memory was assessed in a water maze. Afterwards, the level of neurotransmitters, their metabolites and turnover in the selected brain regions were estimated by HPLC.

Results:
Short-term RJ administration did not change spatial memory in aged rats in the water maze, although it was sufficiently active to modify most of all the serotonergic and dopaminergic transmission in the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus.

Conclusions:
The obtained results indicate that Royal Jelly is able to affect very quickly the neurotransmission in the brain structures responsible for cognitive performance; however, short-term administration is not sufficient to exert behavioural consequences.

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