Anti-Atherogenic Activity of Polyphenol-Rich Extract from Bee Pollen

Abstract

The aim of this study was to determine the effect of polyphenol-rich ethanol extract of bee pollen (EEP) on atherosclerosis induced by a high-fat diet in ApoE-knockout mice. EEP was given with feed in two doses of 0.1 and 1 g/kg body mass (BM). The studies have been conducted in a period of 16 weeks. The following factors were estimated: total cholesterol (TC), oxidized low density lipoproteins (ox-LDL), asymmetric dimethylarginine (ADMA), angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) and angiotensin II (ANG II) in the 5th, 10th, 12th, 14th, and 16th week of the experiment. In the last, i.e., 16th week of the studies the development of coronary artery disease (CAD) was also estimated histopathologically. Supplementing diet with EEP resulted in decreasing TC level. EEP reduced oxidative stress by lowering the levels of ox-LDL, ADMA, ANG II and ACE. EEP protected coronary arteries by significantly limiting the development of atherosclerosis (the dose of 0.1 g/kg BM) or completely preventing its occurrence (the dose of 1 g/kg BM). The obtained results demonstrate that EEP may be useful as a potential anti-atherogenic agent.

Protective Effect of Polyphenol-Rich Extract from Bee Pollen in a High-Fat Diet

“…This was necessary in order to obtain a more complete evaluation of a protective effect of EEP against hypercholesterolemia and atherosclerosis. The studies constitute a reference for our research carried out on a standard experimental model of atherosclerosis, i.e., C 57 BL 6 ApoE-knockout mice [ 24 ].…”

“…We showed the normalisation of TC level due to EEP supplementation in our research on C 57 BL 6 ApoE-knockout mice, which are a standard experimental model of atherosclerosis [ 24 ]. Lipid metabolism is also normalised by propolis, which, like bee pollen, belongs to a group of bee products [ 34 ].…”

“…It was necessary to conduct the studies on the model which was not genetically determined for atherosclerosis in order to more fully estimate the protective effect of bee pollen ethanol extract (EEP) in hypercholesterolemia and atherosclerosis. These studies constitute also the reference for our research carried out on a standard animal model of atherosclerosis, i.e., C 57 BL 6 ApoE-knockout mice [ 24 ]. To the best of our knowledge, the research reports on such studies cannot be found in available literature.…”

Changes in histological structure and nitric oxide synthase expression in aorta of rats supplemented with bee pollen or whey protein

“…On the other hand bee pollen may contain also residues of various pesticides (Böhme et al 2018;Calatayud-Vernich et al 2018). According to a recent studies by Rzepecka-Stojko A. et al, the polyphenol-rich ethanol extract of bee pollen has potent anti-atherogenic activity (Rzepecka-Stojko et al 2017, 2018.…”

Effects of Polyphenol-Rich Foods on Human Health

“…Polyphenols have been demonstrated to be responsible for the anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties of potentially functional foods. Numerous studies explored in detail the molecular mechanisms underlying the protective effects of polyphenols, including antioxidant capacity, that can be attributed to the regulation of redox enzymes through reducing reactive oxygen species (ROS) production and modulation of the II-phase enzymes responsible for the cellular oxidative response; other studies explored the chemo-preventive effects of polyphenols, including the elimination of carcinogenic agents, the modulation of pathways responsible for cancer cell signaling and cell cycle progression, and in the promotion of apoptosis [8,[10][11][12]14,16,18,25,27,[29][30][31][32]37,38,[40][41][42][47][48][49][50].…”