The fruits of
Lycium barbarum, also known as wolfberry, contain many bioactive substances including polysaccharides, carotenoids, flavonoids, amino acids, vitamins, fatty acids, and other trace elements.
5 Interestingly, the polysaccharides of
L. barbarum (LBP) have been shown to have positive effects on aging processes,
6,7 fatigue,
8 oxidative stress,
9–12 neurodegenerative disease,
13,14 tumor growth,
15 immune response,
16 inflammation,
17 irradiation,
18 hyperglycemia,
19 hyperlipidemia
20 and other induced toxicities.
17,21 The neuroprotective effects of LBP have been demonstrated in different experimental models of central nervous system disorders that include variants of optic neuropathies.
22–29 The possible neuroprotective mechanisms of LBP in preserving the retinal ganglionic cells (RGC) have been investigated in rodent models of chronic ocular hypertension,
22–24 acute ocular hypertension (AOH),
26,29 partial optic nerve transection,
25,27 and ischemic reperfusion injuries.
28 However, all these studies demonstrated the prophylactic effect of LBP by pretreating the animals from 1 week prior to the insult until the end of the study period. Only one of these studies applied functional testing,
25 the rest adopting structural end points, which were assessed using histologic techniques. While longitudinal data were collected by cross-sectional observation of animals killed at different time points, there have been no reports demonstrating the neuroprotective effect of LBP using in vivo longitudinal structural evaluation or combined structure–function tools.