Royal Jelly Ameliorates Behavioral Deficits, Cholinergic System Deficiency, and Autonomic Nervous Dysfunction in Ovariectomized Cholesterol-Fed Rabbits

Molecules

Fuliang Hu¹  Mengmeng You¹  Yongming Pan²  Minli Chen²  Qinqin Yang²  Jianqin Xu²  Keyan Zhu²  Ping Jin³ 

[1] College of Animal Sciences, Zhejiang University, Yuhangtang Road 866, Hangzhou 310058, China;Comparative medical Research Institute, Experimental Animal Research Center, Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, Hangzhou 310053, China;The third clinical medical college, Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, Hangzhou 310053, China;

关键词: royal jelly;    cholinergic;    autonomic nervous system;    menopause;    Alzheimer’s disease;    bee products;   

DOI  :  10.3390/molecules24061149

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Estrogen deficiency after menopause is associated with autonomic nervous changes, leading to memory impairment and increased susceptibility to Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Royal jelly (RJ) from honeybees (Apis mellifera) has estrogenic activity. Here, we investigated whether RJ can improve behavior, cholinergic and autonomic nervous function in ovariectomized (OVX) cholesterol-fed rabbits. OVX rabbits on high-cholesterol diet were administered with RJ for 12 weeks. The results showed that RJ could significantly improve the behavioral deficits of OVX cholesterol-fed rabbits and image structure of the brain. RJ reduced body weight, blood lipid, as well as the levels of amyloid-beta (Aβ), acetylcholinesterase (AchE), and malonaldehyde (MDA) in the brain. Moreover, RJ also increased the activities of choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) in the brain, and enhanced heart rate variability (HRV) and Baroreflex sensitivity (BRS) in OVX cholesterol-fed rabbits. Furthermore, RJ was also shown to reduce the content of Evans blue and the expression levels of Aβ, beta-site APP cleaving enzyme 1(BACE1), and receptor for advanced glycation end products (RAGE), and increase the expression level of LDL(low density lipoprotein) receptor-related protein 1 (LRP-1) in the brain. Our findings suggested that RJ has beneficial effects in neurological disorders of postmenopausal women, which were associated with reducing cholesterol and Aβ deposition, enhancing the estrogen levels and the activities of cholinergic and antioxidant systems, and ameliorating the blood–brain barrier (BBB) permeability and restoring autonomic nervous system.

【 授权许可】

Unknown