Abstract
Purpose :
Catechin is a type of antioxidant, which is abundant in berries, cocoa and tea. The current study is to test the protective effect of catechin against oxidative stress in human retinal pigment epithelial cells (ARPE-19) and to investigate the underlying molecular mechanism of oxidative stress.
Methods :
ARPE-19 cells were seeded onto 100-mm cell culture dishes and cultured in DMEM with 10% serum. The dishes of ARPE-19 cells were randomly assigned to a control group, a vehicle group and a treatment group. After 3 days in culture, the treatment group was treated with 5 µM catechin hydrate (58 mg/ml, Selleckchem.com, Huston, TX, Catalog No.S3974) diluted in dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) and the vehicle group was treated with the same volume of DMSO. After 24 hours of the treatment, the cells of the vehicle group and the treatment group were exposed to blue light (5000 lx) for 2 hours. The blue light was obtained by filtering white fluorescent light with a bandpass filter from 380 to 570 nm (Midnight Blue 5940, Solar Graphics, Clearwater, FL, USA). After the light exposure, cell counting with hemocytometer or cell harvesting for western blot was performed. DJ-1 protein express (NB300270, Novus Biologicals, Littleton, CO) in all groups was analyzed by western blot.
Results :
Compared to the control group, the vehicle group shows significant decrease of cell number and significant increase of DJ-1 expression after the light exposure, while the treatment group with 5 µM catechin treatment did not show significant reduction of cell number and significant change of DJ-1 expression after the light exposure. Compared to the vehicle group, the treatment group showed significant higher cell number and lower DJ-1 expression after the light exposure.
Conclusions :
Catechin provides protection to ARPE-19 cells, which is likely related to its effect on the decrease of the cellular oxidative stress.
This abstract was presented at the 2019 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Vancouver, Canada, April 28 - May 2, 2019.