Abstract
Bee pollen is an apiary product of great interest owing to its high nutritional and therapeutic properties. This study aimed to assess the cellular antioxidant activity and the antihemolytic effect of Castanea, Rubus, and Cistus bee pollens on human erythrocytes. We also tested the antimicrobial potential of each sample on selected Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria. Finally, the effect of Castanea bee pollen, showing the best phytochemical profile, was analyzed on human microvascular endothelial cells exposed to thapsigargin, used as endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stressor. Our results showed good biological activities of all bee pollen samples that, under oxidative conditions, significantly improved the erythrocytes’ antioxidant activity and limited cell lyses. Castanea and Cistus showed comparable antihemolytic activities, with higher % hemolysis inhibition than Rubus. All samples exerted antimicrobial activity with different selectivity among all the tested microorganisms with minimal inhibitory concentration values ranging from 5 to 10 mg/mL. Finally, Castanea bee pollen was effective in reducing gene over-expression and oxidation process arising from thapsigargin treatment, with a maximum protective effect at 10 µg/mL. In conclusion, bee pollen represents a potential natural antibacterial and a good nutraceutical product useful in the prevention of free radical and ER stress-associated diseases.
Highlights
Apicultural products have been used for centuries in alternative medicine, in diets, or as dietary supplementation for their health and positive implications
The antibacterial potential of Castanea, Cistus, and Rubus bee pollen extracts at increasing concentrations (1, 2.5, 5, and 10 mg/mL) was tested on selected pathogenic bacterial strains and the relative bacterial growth values were showed in Table
To the best of our knowledge, for the first time, we aimed to investigate the protective effect of Castanea bee pollen, which exhibits the highest phytochemical content among bee pollen samples analyzed, in human microvascular endothelial cells (HMEC1) under endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress conditions by evaluating cell viability, intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, and the expression of factors involved in ER stress, endothelial activation, and inflammation
Summary
Apicultural products have been used for centuries in alternative medicine, in diets, or as dietary supplementation for their health and positive implications. Bee pollen is an apicultural product that is receiving great attention as a functional food for its high nutritional value and therapeutic properties; it represents an important source of energy, bioactive compounds, and proteins for human nutrition [1]. Bee pollen results from the aggregation of collected flower pollens, nectar, and honeybees’ secretion in small colored pollen loads of one specific (monofloral) or more flower species (polyfloral). It represents the richest and most complete natural food supplying high levels of carbohydrates, proteins, enzymes, cofactors, unsaturated and saturated fatty acids, minerals, trace elements, essential amino acids, and vitamins, especially. Bee products are reported to exert anti-angiogenic effects by preventing vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)-induced angiogenesis in human umbilical vein endothelial cells [10]
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