著者

Keizo KOHNO Iwao OKAMOTO Osamu SANO Norie ARAI Kanso IWAKI Masao IKEDA Masashi KURIMOTO

出版者

(社)日本農芸化学会

雑誌

Bioscience, Biotechnology, and Biochemistry (ISSN:09168451)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.68, no.1, pp.138-145, 2004 (Released:2004-01-24)

参考文献数

27

被引用文献数

181

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In this study, we have examined the anti-inflammatory actions of royal jelly (RJ) at a cytokine level. When supernatants of RJ suspensions were added to a culture of mouse peritoneal macrophages stimulated with lipopolysaccharide and IFN-γ, the production of proinflammatory cytokines, such as TNF-α, IL-6, and IL-1, was efficiently inhibited in a dose-dependent manner without having cytotoxic effects on macrophages. This suggests that RJ contains factor(s) responsible for the suppression of proinflammatory cytokine secretion. We named the factor for honeybees RJ-derived anti-inflammatory factor (HBRJ-AIF), and further investigated the molecular aspects of it. Size fractionation study showed that HBRJ-AIF is composed of substances of low (<5 kDa) and high (>30 kDa) molecular weights, with the former being a major component. Chromatographic analysis showed that MRJP3 is one candidate for the HBRJ-AIF with high molecular weights. Thus, our results suggest that RJ has anti-inflammatory actions through inhibiting proinflammatory cytokine production by activated macrophages.