Anti-tumor and immuno-modulating effect of honey in normal and tumor-bearing mice

Abstract EN

In our previous study, it has been reported that honey have anti-proliferative and apoptotic effects against Hep-2 and AMN-3 tumor cell lines in vitro.

The present study was designed to investigate that the effect of intraperitoneal administration of honey against tumor growth in murine mammary gland adenocarcinoma-implanted mice, the volume and weight of tumor, mitotic index of bone marrow stem cells as well as serum IL-2 and IFN-¾ were assessed.

The results showed significant tumor growth inhibition in honey-treated mice by reducing tumor volume and tumor weight about 78.5 % and 43.6 % respectively.

Moreover, mitotic index was significantly increased (p < 0.01) in honey-treated groups of both normal (10.3 ± 0.85) and tumor-bearing mice (14.4 ± 0.8) in comparison to their controls (10.8 ± 0.8 and 7.4 ± 0.53) respectively.

However, the honey treatment caused significant elevation (p < 0.01) in the level of IFN-¾ only but not for IL-2 in the sera of tumor-bearing mice.

These results indicated that honey has antitumor effect either through its direct activity against tumor mass or indirectly through enhancing the immune system.