Royal jelly facilitates restoration of the cognitive ability in trimethyltin-intoxicated mice.

Trimethyltin (TMT) is a toxic organotin compound that induces acute neuronal death selectively in the hippocampal dentate gyrus (DG) followed by cognition impairment; however the TMT-injured hippocampal DG itself is reported to regenerate the neuronal cell layer through rapid enhancement of neurogenesis. Neural stem/progenitor cells (NS/NPCs) are present in the adult hippocampal DG, and generate neurons that can function for the cognition ability. Therefore, we investigated whether royal jelly (RJ) stimulates the regenerating processes of the TMT-injured hippocampal DG, and found that orally administered RJ significantly increased the number of DG granule cells and simultaneously improved the cognitive impairment. Furthermore, we have already shown that RJ facilitates neurogenesis of cultured NS/NPCs. These present results, taken together with previous observations, suggest that the orally administered RJ may be a promising avenue for ameliorating neuronal function by regenerating hippocampal granule cells that function in the cognition process.