Department of Medical Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, Alexandria University, Alexandria, 21519, Egypt.
Department of Biological and Geological Sciences, Faculty of Education, Alexandria University, Alexandria, 21526, Egypt.
Biol Trace Elem Res. 2024 Apr;202(4):1612-1627. doi: 10.1007/s12011-023-03775-0. Epub 2023 Jul 27.
Heavy metal toxicity is an exponentially growing health problem. In this study, we aimed to assess the protective properties of propolis and royal jelly against cadmium adverse effects. Thirty-two adult male rats were included in our study; kidney and liver functions, histopathological changes, and the level of oxidative stress were evaluated in rats exposed to a daily dose of 4.5 mg cadmium per kilogram of body weight for 1 month and those cotreated simultaneously with either propolis (50 mg/kg/day) or royal jelly (200 mg/kg/day) with cadmium compared to control animals. Cadmium-mediated hepatorenal toxicity was manifested as per the increased oxidative stress, function deterioration, and characteristic histopathological aberrations. The supplementation of royal jelly or propolis restores most of the affected parameters to a level similar to the control group. However, the parameters describing the grade of DNA damage and the interleukin-1β expression in the liver, as well as the levels of malondialdehyde and metallothionein, were slightly elevated compared to controls, despite the regular use of royal jelly or propolis. It is worth noting that better results were found in the case of royal jelly compared to propolis administration. Most likely, the ability of both products to chelate cadmium and contribute in reducing oxidative stress is of great importance. However, further investigations are needed to complement the knowledge about the expected nutritional and medicinal values.
重金属毒性是一个呈指数级增长的健康问题。在这项研究中，我们旨在评估蜂胶和蜂王浆对镉不良反应的保护作用。我们的研究纳入了 32 只成年雄性大鼠；评估了暴露于每天每公斤体重 4.5 毫克镉 1 个月的大鼠的肾功能、肝功能、组织病理学变化和氧化应激水平，以及同时用蜂胶（50 毫克/公斤/天）或蜂王浆（200 毫克/公斤/天）与镉共同治疗的大鼠与对照组相比的情况。镉介导的肝肾毒性表现为氧化应激增加、功能恶化和特征性组织病理学异常。蜂王浆或蜂胶的补充将大多数受影响的参数恢复到与对照组相似的水平。然而，与对照组相比，描述肝脏中 DNA 损伤程度和白细胞介素-1β表达以及丙二醛和金属硫蛋白水平的参数略有升高，尽管定期使用蜂王浆或蜂胶。值得注意的是，与蜂胶相比，蜂王浆的效果更好。这很可能是因为这两种产品螯合镉和减少氧化应激的能力非常重要。然而，需要进一步的研究来补充关于预期营养价值和药用价值的知识。
