Abstract
The natural carotenoid crocetin has been reported to suppress phenotypes of an experimental myopia model in mice. We investigated the minimum effective dose to prevent myopia progression in a murine model. Three-week-old male mice (C57B6/J) were equipped with a −30 diopter (D) lens to induce myopia, and fed with normal chow, 0.0003%, or 0.001% of crocetin-containing chow. Changes in refractive errors and axial lengths (AL) were evaluated after three weeks. Pharmacokinetics of crocetin in the plasma and the eyeballs of mice was evaluated with specific high sensitivity quantitative analysis using liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) to determine the minimum effective dosage. A concentration of 0.001% of crocetin-containing chow showed a significant (p < 0.001) suppressive effect against both refractive and AL changes in the murine model. Meanwhile, there was no significant difference of AL change between the 0.0003% and the normal chow groups. The concentration of crocetin in the plasma and the eyeballs from mice fed with 0.001% crocetin-containing chow was significantly higher than control and 0.0003% crocetin-containing chow. In conclusion, we suggest 0.001% of crocetin-containing extract is the minimum effective dose showing a significant suppressive effect against both refractive and AL changes in the murine model.
Highlights
Myopia has been rapidly increasing in recent years worldwide [1]
Animals fed with crocetin-containing chow showed a significantly smaller refractive change with −30 D lens (+2.46 ± 2.22 D for 0.001%, −1.28 ± 3.62 D for 0.0003%) compared to the control group with −30 D (−14.46 ± 2.11 D) (p < 0.001 for both concentrations, Figure 1a)
Previous studies demonstrated that both of the concentrations, 0.003% and 0.03%, Previous studies demonstrated that both of the concentrations, 0.003% and 0.03%, of crocetinof crocetin-containing extract have a suppressive effect on myopia progression [12]
Summary
Myopia has been rapidly increasing in recent years worldwide [1]. The medical cost related to the increase of myopia will expand, and suppression of myopia is more important [2]. Development of the way of myopia prevention is much more aggressively performed than before [3,4]. Preventative measures such as outdoor activities, atropine eye drops, and orthokeratology lenses are under investigation [5], there have few oral medicines or supplements which showed significant suppressive effect on myopia progression
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