Pro-apoptotic activity of Apis mellifera royal jelly hydrophilic fractions

Apis mellifera royal jelly was separated into high and low molecular weight hydrophilic fractions and their antiproliferative activity against a highly metastatic human colorectal cancer cell line HCT-116 and a non-cancerous 3T3-L1 cell line was assayed using the MTT assay. The pro-apoptotic activity of the high molecular weight protein fraction was further assayed using various apoptotic markers and cell cycle analysis studies by flow cytometry.