Zeaxanthin dipalmitate-enriched wolfberry extract improves vision in a mouse model of photoreceptor degeneration

• Published in: PloS one 2024-05, Vol.19 (5), p.e0302742-e0302742
• Main Authors: Chen, Xiongmin, Zhang, Sensen, Yang, Lili, Kong, Qihang, Zhang, Wenhua, Zhang, Jinhong, Hao, Xiangfeng, So, Kwok-Fai, Xu, Ying
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Acuity; Animals; Apoptosis; Biology and Life Sciences; Carotenoids; Degeneration; Disease Models, Animal; Dried fruit; Electroretinography; Enrichment; Ethanol; Fruits; Gene therapy; Goji berries; Health aspects; High performance liquid chromatography; Laboratory animals; Light effects; Liquid chromatography; Lycium; Lycium - chemistry; Male; Medical research; Medicine and Health Sciences; Medicine, Experimental; Mice; Mice, Inbred C57BL; N-Methyl-N-nitrosourea; Photoreception; Photoreceptor Cells, Vertebrate - drug effects; Photoreceptor Cells, Vertebrate - pathology; Photoreceptors; Physical Sciences; Physiological aspects; Plant Extracts - chemistry; Plant Extracts - pharmacology; Production lines; Prostheses; Research and Analysis Methods; Retina; Retina - drug effects; Retina - metabolism; Retina - pathology; Retinal degeneration; Retinal Degeneration - drug therapy; Retinal Degeneration - pathology; Social Sciences; Solvents; Vision; Vision, Ocular - drug effects; Visual acuity; Xanthophylls - pharmacology; Zeaxanthin; Zeaxanthins - pharmacology
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0302742

Zeaxanthin dipalmitate (ZD) is a chemical extracted from wolfberry that protects degenerated photoreceptors in mouse retina. However, the pure ZD is expensive and hard to produce. In this study, we developed a method to enrich ZD from wolfberry on a production line and examined whether it may also protect the degenerated mouse retina. The ZD-enriched wolfberry extract (ZDE) was extracted from wolfberry by organic solvent method, and the concentration of ZD was identified by HPLC. The adult C57BL/6 mice were treated with ZDE or solvent by daily gavage for 2 weeks, at the end of the first week the animals were intraperitoneally injected with N-methyl-N-nitrosourea to induce photoreceptor degeneration. Then optomotor, electroretinogram, and immunostaining were used to test the visual behavior, retinal light responses, and structure. The final ZDE product contained ~30mg/g ZD, which was over 9 times higher than that from the dry fruit of wolfberry. Feeding degenerated mice with ZDE significantly improved the survival of photoreceptors, enhanced the retinal light responses and the visual acuity. Therefore, our ZDE product successfully alleviated retinal morphological and functional degeneration in mouse retina, which may provide a basis for further animal studies for possible applying ZDE as a supplement to treat degenerated photoreceptor in the clinic.