Abstract
Royal jelly (RJ) has many biologically active ingredients : protein, sugar, lipid (e.g., 10-hydroxy-2-decenoic acid) and other chemicals. Apisin is a 350-kDa glycoprotein, which is the main protein component of RJ. We isolated and purified apisin from fresh RJ through a series of operations, i.e., dialysis, centrifuge separation and ion exchange column chromatography. We investigated whether RJ and purified apisin promote cell proliferation and the production of collagen in normal human neonatal skin fibroblasts, NB1RGB cells. Moreover, we investigated whether apisin promotes the differentiation of MC3T3-E1, a mouse osteoblastic cell line with calcium and hydroxyapatite production. RJ and apisin induced proliferation and collagen production in NB1RGB cells, and promoted the differentiation of MC3T3-E1 into osteoblasts. These findings suggest that RJ has proliferationand differentiation-inducing functions, and these effects may be partly mediated via the effects of apisin.
