ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Nutr.
Sec. Nutrition and Metabolism
This article is part of the Research TopicBioactivity and Health Benefits of Bee Products: Emerging Technologies and Consumer InsightsView all 7 articles
Major Royal Jelly Proteins promote C2C12 myotubes differentiation by improving mitochondrial function
Provisionally accepted
Xin ZhangJinting WeiSuchan LiaoLingling HuangZhikun BaiYue HuCaiyan YangBin ZhongYishen GuBiao Li
Jinhua Wang*- Youjiang Medical University for Nationalities (YMUN), Baise, China
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Abstract Royal Jelly (RJ) has been widely used as a health-promoting supplement and its bioactive component is the Major Royal Jelly Proteins (MRJPs). Whether MRJPs promote skeletal-muscle-cell development remains unresolved. Muscle dysfunction is linked to mitochondrial depletion and protein breakdown. Thus, we evaluated how MRJPs affect myotube differentiation. Myotubes morphology and number were measured using fluorescence microscopy and Coomassie brilliant blue staining, and C2C12 myotube differentiation was assessed using Western blotting or qRT-PCR analysis of the expression of MyoD, MyoG, Myosin Heavy Chain (MyHC) and muscle ring finger 1 (MuRF-1). Mitochondrial function was assessed with fluorescent probes, whereas the content of mitochondria was determined by analyzing the expression of related proteins. Western blotting was used to examine the expression of myosin-associated proteins, autophagy-associated proteins, apoptosis-associated proteins, and mitochondria-associated proteins. This was demonstrated by increased myotubes density and length, and increased mRNA and proteins expression of MyoD, MyoG and MyHC. In this study, we found that MRJPs promoted the differentiation of C2C12 myoblasts to form myotubes, but could not reverse Dex-induced muscle atrophy. The possible mechanism is that MRJPs reduced apoptosis increased cellular autophagy, stimulated mitochondrial biogenesis, promoted mitochondrial dynamics homeostasis and mitophagy, and prevented the loss of mitochondrial membrane potential.
Keywords: Major Royal Jelly Proteins, C2C12, Myoblasts, differentiation, Mitochondria
Received: 31 Jul 2025; Accepted: 27 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhang, Wei, Liao, Huang, Bai, Hu, Yang, Zhong, Gu, Li and Wang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Jinhua Wang
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