Introduction: Nowadays interest in aging has greatly increased. Aging is a complex natural process involving every molecule in the body, that is associated with tissue dysfunction in many organs. Aging of the cornea causes major eye effects. These effects include the highly prevalent dry eye disease (DED) that affects both visual function and quality of life in elderly. Functional foods such as Royal jelly (RJ) have a growing attention. Its importance not only for its nutritional properties but also for its functional and biological properties such as antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antibacterial and antiviral. Aim: Was to investigate the histological effect of aging on the cornea of male albino rat and possible therapeutic role of (RJ) on senile group. Materials and methods: Twenty-four male albino rats were used in this study divided into Group I: consisted of 6 adult male rats aged 3- 6 months.Group II: consisted of 18 senile male rats aged 18-24 months, were further subdivided into three subgroups as follows:Group IIA: negative control senile rats, not subjected to any procedure for 4 weeks. Group IIB: control senile rats and were given distilled water. Group IIC: senile rats were of 300/kg/day orally once daily for 4 weeks. The cornea of each rat was carefully dissected out and immediately fixed in 10% formalin for preparation of paraffin blocks 5 micrometer thickness. Sections were stained with (H&E), Masson's trichrome and(PAS) counterstaining with hematoxylin. Statistical analysis was done. Results: Light microscopic examination of corneas of senile rats revealed different changes included irregularity in the surface epithelium, erosions and cytoplasmic vacuolations. The stroma showed widely separated collagen fibers with decreased keratocyte and endothelial cell count. It was concluded that (RJ) supplementation to senile rats obviously improved all layers of the cornea histologically.
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