Biotério Central, Departamento de Medicina Veterinária, Universidade Federal de Lavras, UFLA, 3037, Lavras, MG, 37200-900, Brazil; Departmento de Biología Celular e Histología, Facultad de Biología, Universidad de Murcia, Murcia, 30100, Spain.
Laboratório de Genética Animal e Humana, Departamento de Genética, Ecologia e Evolução, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, UFMG, Belo Horizonte, MG, 31270-901, Brazil.
Fish Shellfish Immunol. 2021 Dec;119:300-307. doi: 10.1016/j.fsi.2021.10.012. Epub 2021 Oct 14.
Bee pollen, a natural resource collected by bees, is rich in many nutrients, therefore it may represent a useful dietary supplement. Different uses of bee pollen are proposed due to its beneficial health properties, which includes the capacity to improve animal performance and promote immunostimulation. Animal nutrition can directly affect adults and their offspring, and larval stage is a critical moment for fish due to high mortality related to immune challenges. Thus, the present study attempted to evaluate the effects of adding bee pollen to a zebrafish diet, specifically, analyzing the effects on reproduction and immunity transference to descendants. Zebrafish adults received control diets based on commercial flakes and live food Artemia sp. nauplii or bee pollen-supplemented diets, administered three times a day, at the same time. The animals received the diets over 60 d, and throughout this period, they were tested for: egg production per female, total number of eggs, embryo viability rate, larval survival rate after exposure to spring viremia of carp virus and to Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium, and larval neutrophil recruitment after tail wounding. Bee pollen supplementation failed to improve egg production and embryo viability, and was unable to substitute flakes in zebrafish breeders. Instead, the offspring of breeders fed with bee pollen supplemented diets showed longer survival upon virus exposure and higher neutrophil migration to wounds. These results indicate that bee pollen can influence vertical immunity through important mechanisms related to offspring immunity in the early stages, when larval immune system is not fully developed.
蜂花粉是蜜蜂采集的一种天然资源，富含多种营养物质，因此可能是一种有用的膳食补充剂。由于其有益的健康特性，如提高动物性能和促进免疫刺激的能力，提出了蜂花粉的不同用途。动物营养可以直接影响成虫及其后代，而幼虫期是鱼类的关键时期，因为免疫挑战导致高死亡率。因此，本研究试图评估将蜂花粉添加到斑马鱼饮食中的效果，特别是分析其对繁殖和免疫传递给后代的影响。成年斑马鱼接受基于商业薄片和活的丰年虾无节幼体或添加蜂花粉的饮食的对照饮食，每天喂食三次，同时进行。动物接受饮食 60 天以上，在此期间对以下指标进行测试：每只雌鱼的产卵量、总产卵数、胚胎存活率、暴露于鲤鱼春血病病毒和肠炎沙门氏菌后幼虫的存活率，以及尾部受伤后幼虫中性粒细胞的募集。蜂花粉补充剂未能提高产卵量和胚胎存活率，也不能替代薄片作为斑马鱼繁殖者的饲料。相反，喂食添加蜂花粉饮食的繁殖者的后代在病毒暴露后存活时间更长，伤口中性粒细胞迁移更多。这些结果表明，蜂花粉可以通过与幼虫免疫系统尚未完全发育的早期后代免疫相关的重要机制影响垂直免疫。
