Dose-Dependent Impact of Bee Pollen Supplementation on Macroscopic and Microscopic Structure of Femoral Bone in Rats

Abstract

Bee pollen has been successfully used as a feed additive with beneficial impacts on productive, reproductive, and immune conditions of animals. However, its effect on bone structure and bone health remains controversial. Therefore, the purpose of our study was to examine the impact of bee pollen supplementation on macroscopic and microscopic structure of a femoral bone using rats as suitable animal models. Male rats (1 month-old) were assigned into three groups: control (C group) that was fed a standard diet without bee pollen and two bee pollen supplemented groups (P1 and P2 groups) that received an experimental diet including 0.5% and 0.75% of bee pollen, respectively, for 3 months. A number of unfavorable effects of 0.75% bee pollen administration on bone weight, cortical bone thickness, calcium content, alkaline phosphatase activity, sizes of primary osteons’ vascular canals, Haversian canals and secondary osteons in the cortical bone have been recorded, whereas these bone parameters were significantly decreased in the P2 group versus the C group. On the contrary, the concentration of 0.5% did not affect any of bone features mentioned above. In conclusion, the impact of bee pollen supplementation on femoral bone structure of rats depends on the dose used.

Effect of High Density of Birds› numbers and Bee Pollen Addition on The level of Heat Shock Protein 90 and Blood Parameters of Male Japanese Quails

“…The results showed that there was no significant difference in the level of alanine aminotransferase and aspartate aminotransferase in the group of 21 birds/m 2 supplemented with 20 and 30 gm of bee pollen compared to the control group, and when 20 and 30 gm of bee pollen were added to the bird population density group, Similarly the results of Martiniakova et al [45] showed no significant difference in ALT levels when bee pollen was added and, on the contrary, lower values of AST were shown in the 0.5% and 0.75% groups of bee pollen. Perhaps the reason is that bee pollen improves liver function and reduces liver damage, and perhaps the protective effect of bee pollen on the liver is due to the antioxidant content of some flavonoids such as quercetin, which plays a role as an antioxidant against oxidants that cause liver damage [46].…”

Applications of honeybee-derived products in bone tissue engineering

“…Therefore, it is recommended to increase the sample size and include animals of both sexes in future studies. Additionally, conducting further experiments with different doses of bee pollen and extending the supplementation period would provide valuable insights and enhance our understanding of its effects ( Martiniakova et al, 2021 ).…”

The Effect of Adding Bee Pollen on The Sexual Efficiency of Quail Males

“…Bee workers (Apis mellifera) gather flower pollen from various plant sources to create bee pollen (Attia et al, 2014). Bee pollen generally consists of 25 to 30 % protein, 30 to 55 percent carbohydrates, 1 to 20 percent fatty acids and lipids, as well as vitamins, minerals, sterols, phenolic acids and flavonoids (Martiniakova et al, 2021). Bee pollen contains essential nutrients that have a beneficial nutritional effect on reproductive effectiveness; as mentioned by Wang et al (2002), adding 1 and 1.5 % bee pollen improved semen quality and increased broiler chicken activity and sperm concentration.…”