Effects of Royal Jelly on bone healing in rabbit model: Radiological and histopathological evaluation

Bone grafts have been used to stimulate the fracture healing in orthopaedic surgery. Allograft and xenograft are more used because of auto graft use problems. Royal jelly is the principal food source of the queen honey bee. Royal jelly has pharmacological activities such as anti-bacterial, antioxidant, antitumor and anti-inflammatory effects. This research was designed to evaluate the effects of royal jelly on bone healing and restoration in the rabbit model.

In this study, we used 10 New Zealand white rabbits with an approximate weight of 2 kg. They were divided into two groups (N=5) midradius bone defect created and filled with royal jelly and in the second group (N=5) the defected filled with nothing. The radiological evaluation performed on days 14th, 28th and 42nd after the operation. Histopathological evaluation was done on 42 days after the operation.

Radiological result has not shown the significant difference in days 14th and 42nd (p>0.05) and only on day 28, there was a meaningful division (p<0.05). There was no significant difference between the two groups in histopathological evaluation.

This study indicates using of royal jelly could accelerate bone healing process in rabbit and has the potential for  use in medicine.