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. 2020 May;68(4):e12643.
doi: 10.1111/jpi.12643. Epub 2020 Mar 13.

Melatonin protects the retina from experimental nonexudative age-related macular degeneration in mice

Hernán H Diéguez  1 , María F González Fleitas  1 , Marcos L Aranda  1 , Juan S Calanni  1 , María I Keller Sarmiento  1 , Mónica S Chianelli  1 , Agustina Alaimo  2 , Pablo H Sande  1 , Horacio E Romeo  3 , Ruth E Rosenstein  1 , Damián Dorfman  1
Affiliations

Melatonin protects the retina from experimental nonexudative age-related macular degeneration in mice

Hernán H Diéguez et al. J Pineal Res. 2020 May.

Abstract

Nonexudative age-related macular degeneration (NE-AMD) represents the leading cause of blindness in the elderly. Currently, there are no available treatments for NE-AMD. We have developed a NE-AMD model induced by superior cervical ganglionectomy (SCGx) in C57BL/6J mice, which reproduces the disease hallmarks. Several lines of evidence strongly support the involvement of oxidative stress in NE-AMD-induced retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) and outer retina damage. Melatonin is a proven and safe antioxidant. Our aim was analysing the effect of melatonin in the RPE/outer retina damage within experimental NE-AMD. The treatment with melatonin starting 48 h after SCGx, which had no effect on the ubiquitous choriocapillaris widening, protected visual functions and avoided Bruch´s membrane thickening, RPE melanin content, melanosome number loss, retinoid isomerohydrolase (RPE65)-immunoreactivity decrease, and RPE and hotoreceptor ultrastructural damage induced within experimental NE-AMD exclusively located at the central temporal (but not nasal) region. Melatonin also prevented the increase in outer retina/RPE oxidative stress markers and a decrease in mitochondrial mass at 6 weeks post-SCGx. Moreover, when the treatment with melatonin started at 4 weeks post-SCGx, it restored visual functions and reversed the decrease in RPE melanin content and RPE65-immunoreactivity. These findings suggest that melatonin could become a promising safe therapeutic strategy for NE-AMD.

Keywords: melatonin; nonexudative age-related macular degeneration; oxidative stress; retinal pigment epithelium; superior cervical ganglion.

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References

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