As the world undergoes aging, the number of age-related diseases has increased. One of them is disease related to retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) degeneration, such as age-related macular degeneration, causing vision loss without physical damage in the ocular system. It is the leading cause of blindness, with no cure. Although the exact pathogenesis is still unknown, the research shows that oxidative stress is one of the risk factors. Various molecules have been reported as anti-oxidative materials; however, the disease has not yet been conquered. Here, we would like to introduce photobiomodulation (PBM). PBM is a non-invasive treatment based on red and near-infrared light and has been used to cure various diseases by regulating cellular functions. Furthermore, recent studies showed its antioxidant effect, and due to this reason, PBM is arising as a new treatment for ocular disease. In this study, we confirm the antioxidant effect of PBM in retinal pigment epithelium via an RPE model with hypoxia. The function of RPE is protected by PBM against damage from hypoxia. Furthermore, we observed the protective mechanism of PBM by its suppression effect on reactive oxygen species generation. These results indicate that PBM shows great potential to cure RPE degeneration to help patients with blindness.
Conclusions
In this study, we analyzed the safety and effectiveness of PBM in RPE degeneration. For this analysis, the in vitro hypoxia model was developed and confirmed the generation of oxidative stress and related the dysfunction of the RPE, including barrier, clearance, and visual functions. Through this model, we first confirmed the safety of PBM via its non-damaging effect on the RPE. Then, its effectiveness in RPE degeneration was analyzed by pre-treatment of PBM in a hypoxia model via protected RPE functionalities, whereas the functions were destructed in the hypoxia model. Furthermore, the suppression of ROS generation, the curative mechanism of PBM, was observed. To summarize, we confirmed that our model reflected the physiological condition of normal/retinal degeneration and conducted a pilot study for analyzing the effect of PBM as a new treatment for RPE degeneration.
