The effects of Tualang honey intake during prenatal stress on pain responses in the rat offsprings

Abstract

IntroductionThe effects of honey administration during normal pregnancy and prenatal stress on pain behavior in the offspring are not known. Here we examined the effects of Tualang honey administration during pregnancy and prenatal stress on pain responses in male rat offspring. Materials and methodsPregnant dams were divided into four groups; control (C), honey (H), stress (S) and stress with honey (SH). Tualang honey (1.2g/kg) or distilled water was administered orally throughout pregnancy. S and SH groups were subjected to restraining stress from day 11 of pregnancy until delivery. Intraplantar formalin injection and thermal stimulus were given to the male adult offspring (220–300g). Behavior data due to formalin injection and thermal stimuli were analyzed using repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) and one way ANOVA respectively and significance level was taken as less than 0.05. ResultsThe study showed that the offspring from the H group had higher tail flick latency time compared to C and offspring from SH group had a significant reduction in the formalin test score in phase 1 and late phase 2 compared to S group. DiscussionThe nutrients in Tualang honey are beneficial to support neural development of the fetus and capable to modulate the offspring's nociceptive responses. The present study provides novel knowledge regarding the possible role of Tualang honey in fetal neural development which modulates pain responses in later life. Further studies are required to elucidate the mechanisms of action of honey on pain behavior in the rat offspring.