Effect of Royal Jelly on Sterile Wound Healing in Balb/C Mice

Introduction &

Wound healing is the process of repairing following injury to the skin and other soft tissues. Following injury, inflammatory response occurs and the cells below the dermis begin to increase collagen production, later on, the epithelial tissue is regenerated. Royal jelly (RJ) is a bee product. There are many reports on pharmacological activity of RJ on experimented animals. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of RJ on the induction of wound healing of sterile incision in Balb/C mice.

In this experimental study which was conducted at Shahr-e-kord University of Medical Sciences in 60 female Balb/C mice (8 weeks old) were selected. The mice were anesthetized with ether. The dorsal fur of the animals was shaved and sterilized with alcohol, and then a longitudinal para vertebral full thickness incision of 10mm long was made. The animals were then divided into six equal groups. In group one (negative control), nothing was applied to the wound. Group 2 (positive control) was treated with nitrofurazon ointment, group 3 was treated with RJ 200 mg/kg daily, group 4 was treated with RJ 200 mg/kg every two days, group 5 was treated with RJ 300 mg/kg daily, group 6 treated with RJ 300 mg/kg every two days. Royal jelly was topically used on the wounds. The wound length was measured with vernier capilar every two days until the complete healing was occurred. The data were analyzed with SPSS version 11.5 using Kruscal Walis tests.

There was a significant difference between groups 1, 2 with the other groups (p< 0.015). RJ promoted wound healing activity significantly in group 3, 5 compared to negative and positive control groups. There was no significant difference between the dosage of 200mg/kg with 300 mg/kg of RJ (p>0.015).

The results of this study indicated that daily application of RJ possesses betters wound healing effects than nitrofurazon.