Do green-tea and Tempol (superoxide mimitic) present an beneficial effect in the pathogenesis of diabetic retinopathy? An in vivo study using human retinal pigmented epithelium cells (ARPE-19)

Abstract

Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is the leading cause of blindness in United States. DR is a neurodegenerative disease accompanied by extensive vascular changes. An early marker of DR is blood retinal barrier (BRB) breakdown, both inner and outer BRB. The inner retinal barrier is formed by endothelial/pericytes and the outer retinal barrier by the pigmented epithelial retinal cell. ARPE-19 is a transformed cell and is an appropriate system to evaluated the outer retinal barrier. Findings from our group demonstrated the beneficial effects of antioxidants (tempol and green tea) in retina from experimental diabetic rats. The aim of the present work is to evaluate in vitro the possible mechanisms involved in the effects of antioxidants compounds in the treatment of DR. The specific objectives are to evaluate the transepithelial permeability and the anti and pro-oxidants systems present in ARPE-19 in presence of high glucose with or without treatment (tempol and green tea). (AU)