Royal jelly (RJ) is used as a dietary supplement for human health promotion. Recently, a clinical trial has reported that RJ improved mental health. The present study was conducted to experimentally support the clinical effect of RJ on mental health and to further elucidate the mechanisms of action of RJ. RJ and an ethanol extract of RJ, which contains fatty acids but not proteins, inhibited an unpredictable chronic mild stress (UCMS)-induced increase in immobility time, a depression-like behavior, in the tail suspension test. DNA microarray analysis of the adrenal grand revealed that the expression of genes involved in cholesterol metabolism was up-regulated in response to UCMS exposure and that RJ suppressed expression of genes related to cholesterol synthesis and transport. These results suggested that RJ improves stress-induced depression-like behavior by regulating adrenal steroidogenesis and that fatty acids contained in RJ partly contribute to the antidepressant effect of RJ.

中文翻译：

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蜂王浆可能通过影响不可预测的慢性轻度应激的小鼠模型中的肾上腺类固醇生成来减少抑郁症样行为。

蜂王浆（RJ）被用作促进人类健康的膳食补充剂。最近，一项临床试验报道RJ改善了心理健康。本研究旨在通过实验支持RJ对精神健康的临床作用，并进一步阐明RJ的作用机制。RJ和包含脂肪酸但不含蛋白质的RJ乙醇提取物在尾部悬架测试中抑制了不可预测的慢性轻度应激（UCMS）导致的不动时间的增加，即抑郁样行为。对肾上腺的DNA芯片分析表明，参与UCMS暴露后，参与胆固醇代谢的基因表达被上调，RJ抑制了与胆固醇合成和运输有关的基因表达。