ARVO
Fort Lauderdale, FL - A study to be presented at the 2008 Annual Meeting of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology demonstrates that caffeine may be effective against UV-B induced damage to the eye lens. The research will be available on Monday, April 28, 8.30-10.15am in Hall B/C of the Greater Fort Lauderdale/Broward County Convention Center.
Researchers from the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimare, MD, hypothesized that tea and coffee alkaloids may exert an anti-cataractogenic effect on the lens. They evealuated their hypothesis in lens culture experiments where cataract development was induced by irradiation with UV-B (302nm) in freshly isolated mice (CD-1) lenses.
The researchers adjusted the exposure level of UV to decrease the rubidium transport activitiy to about 60% of basal controls run in dark. This was accompanied by simaltaneous dicreases in the levels of GSH and ATP to 50% and 40% of the dark controls. These deteriorations were significantly preventable in the presense of caffeine. The loss of rubidium transport was nearly completely thwarted.
The researchers concluded that "the observed effects are attributable in part to caffeine's UV screening effect, acting in combination with its other properties such as via scavenging oxyradicals and maintaining cyclic AMP, the latter by inhibiting phosphodiesterase." The team currently has further mechanistic studies underway.
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ARVO is the largest eye and vision research organization in the world. Members include more than 12,500 eye and vision researchers from over 70 countries. The Association encourages and assisits research, training, publication and dissemination of knowledge in vision and ophthalmology. For more information, visit www.arvo.org.