title: The modulating effect of royal jelly consumption against radiation-induced apoptosis in human peripheral blood leukocytes.
abstract: The present work was designed to assess the radioprotective effect of royal jelly (RJ) against radiation-induced apoptosis in human peripheral blood leukocytes. In this study, peripheral blood samples were obtained on days 0, 4, 7, and 14 of the study from six healthy male volunteers taking a 1000 mg RJ capsule orally per day for 14 consecutive days. On each sampling day, all collected whole blood samples were divided into control and irradiated groups which were then exposed to the selected dose of 4 Gy X-ray. Percentage of apoptotic cells (Ap %) was evaluated for all samples immediately after irradiation (Ap0) and also after a 24 h postirradiation incubation at 37°C in 5% CO2 (Ap24) by the use of neutral comet assay. Concerning Ap0, collected data demonstrated that the percentage of apoptotic cells in both control and irradiated groups did not significantly change during the study period. However, with respect to Ap24, the percentage of apoptotic cells in irradiated groups gradually reduced during the experiment, according to which a significant decrease was found after 14 days RJ consumption (P = 0.002). In conclusion, the present study revealed the protective role of 14 days RJ consumption against radiation-induced apoptosis in human peripheral blood leukocytes.
authors.affiliation: Cellular and Molecular Biology Research Center, Department of Medical Physics, Faculty of Medicine, Babol University of Medical Sciences, Babol, Iran.
authors.forename: Navid
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Rafat
authors.affiliation: Cellular and Molecular Biology Research Center, Department of Medical Physics, Faculty of Medicine, Babol University of Medical Sciences, Babol, Iran.
authors.forename: Ali Shabestani
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Monfared
authors.affiliation: Department of Biophysics and Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Sari, Iran.
authors.forename: Maryam
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Shahidi
authors.affiliation: Department of Biophysics and Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Sari, Iran.
authors.forename: Tayyeb Allahverdi
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Pourfallah
keywords: Apoptosis; comet assay; ionizing radiation; leukocytes; royal jelly