探討蜂王乳對肝細胞株－－Hep G2抗氧化之保護效益

The Antioxidant Effects of Royal Jelly on the Hep G2 Liver Cell line

自由基帶來的氧化壓力，往往是導致人體慢性疾病之重要誘因，因此抗氧化已成為保健不可或缺的重要策略。民間常用蜂王乳具有青春永駐及延年益壽的保健作用，也具備逆轉氧化性傷害之潛力，然其抗氧化方式尚不清楚，有待進一步探討。本研究探討人類肝細胞株－－HepG2受到氧化性傷害時，蜂王乳是否能提供保護效益，以及一步確認其保護效益是否與自由基清除效率相關。結果顯示，對肝細胞給予1 mM H2O2的氧化刺激，讓細胞存活率下降至57±8%；但氧化刺激同時給予細胞蜂王乳10μg/ml之添加，細胞存活率卻可提升為79±6%（圖一），並且將與氧化傷害組之細胞與蜂王乳添加組細胞比較，蜂王乳添加組細胞形態較趨近控制組織細胞形態。由結果可知蜂王乳對肝細胞的氧化性傷害應具有保護效益，但檢測蜂王乳自由基清除效率卻發現蜂王乳清除自由基效率微弱，表示蜂王乳逆轉肝細胞氧化性傷害的機制可能是透過細胞修復或其它機制達成。

How to prevent free radicals from being oxidized is an important issue in healthcare since it has been hypothesized that some human illnesses or chronic diseases are exacerbated by the process of oxidation. One popular health supplement, Royal Jelly, has often been claimed to be beneficial to health and longevity, most likely because of its potential to reverse oxidative damage. It is unknown, as yet, how Royal Jelly produces this antioxidant effect and thus is an important area for investigation and research. The current study has been done to examine whether Royal Jelly is capable of offering protection to human a liver cell line, the Hep G2, and to investigate whether it may function as a free radical scavenger. The results show that when liver cells are oxidized by 1 mm of H2O2 cell viability is decreased to 57 ± 8%; whereas cell viability is increased to 79 ± 6% (Figure 1) when cells in are exposed to oxidation by a concentration of 10μg /ml of Royal Jelly. Moreover, when comparing the cells damaged by oxidation, the group of cells exposed to the concentration of Royal Jelly remain morphologically more similar to that of the control group. These results provide evidence in support of the claim that Royal Jelly can function to protect liver cells from oxidation although its ability to neutralize the free radicals was lower than expected. This would suggest that the mechanism Royal Jelly uses to reverse oxidative cell damage might be more effective by using other approaches.