Department of Animal Physiology, University of Life Sciences in Lublin, Lublin, Poland.
Institute of Biological Basis of Animal Production, University of Life Sciences in Lublin, Lublin, Poland.
PLoS One. 2020 Mar 18;15(3):e0230240. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0230240. eCollection 2020.
It has been demonstrated in numerous studies that bee pollen supplementation shows numerous positive effects on health. However, its impact on bones is largely unknown. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of bee pollen supplementation on the tibia biomechanical properties and bone morphometric measures using Japanese quail as an animal model. The experiment was arranged in a 2x2x2 factorial design, with sex, quail line (meat-type or egg-lying type), and bee pollen inclusion (0 or 10 g/kg of feed) as factors. The quails were one-day-old at the beginning of the experiment, they were euthanized after 42 days. Our study showed for the first time unfavorable effects of bee pollen on bones properties. Bee pollen supplementation negatively affected bone structure, irrespective of quails' sex or line type. Bone length (P < 0.001), weight (P < 0.01), and mean relative wall thickness (P < 0.01) and mineralization (P < 0.05) were reduced by bee pollen treatment. For female quails, irrespective of line type, the decrease of yield load (P < 0.001), ultimate load (P < 0.01), yield stress (P < 0.001) and ultimate stress (P < 0.05) was noted. Analysis of growth plate in bone metaphysis showed that bee pollen supplementation slowed the process of bone maturation irrespective of sex (P < 0.05). On contrary, dietary bee pollen positively affected bone homeostasis of trabecular bone in bone metaphysis as bone mineral density increased in experimental groups (P < 0.05). In males, this was the result of the increase of trabecular thickness (P < 0.01), in females due to the reduction of trabecular space (P < 0.001). In conclusion, our results demonstrate that bee pollen (1.0%, 10 g/kg of feed) supplementation caused significant negative effects on the mechanical endurance of the tibia of quails, while showed beneficial effects on trabecular bone histomorphometry.
大量研究表明，花粉补充剂对健康有许多积极影响。然而，其对骨骼的影响在很大程度上尚不清楚。本研究旨在使用鹌鹑作为动物模型，研究花粉补充剂对胫骨生物力学特性和骨形态计量学测量的影响。实验采用 2x2x2 析因设计，以性别、鹌鹑品系（肉用型或蛋用型）和花粉添加（0 或 10 g/kg 饲料）为因素。实验开始时，鹌鹑为 1 日龄，42 天后安乐死。我们的研究首次表明花粉对骨骼性质有不利影响。花粉补充剂无论鹌鹑的性别或品系类型如何，都对骨骼结构产生负面影响。花粉处理降低了骨长度（P < 0.001）、重量（P < 0.01）、平均相对壁厚度（P < 0.01）和矿化（P < 0.05）。对于雌性鹌鹑，无论品系类型如何，屈服载荷（P < 0.001）、最终载荷（P < 0.01）、屈服应力（P < 0.001）和最终应力（P < 0.05）均降低。骨骺板分析表明，花粉补充剂无论性别如何，都减缓了骨成熟过程（P < 0.05）。相反，饮食花粉补充剂正面影响了骨骺部松质骨的骨内稳态，因为实验组的骨密度增加（P < 0.05）。在雄性中，这是由于小梁厚度增加（P < 0.01），在雌性中，由于小梁间隙减少（P < 0.001）。总之，我们的结果表明，花粉（1.0%，10 g/kg 饲料）补充剂对鹌鹑胫骨的机械耐力产生了显著的负面影响，而对松质骨组织形态计量学有有益的影响。
