The protective effect of anti‐blue lens against photo‐induced cell death

Abstract

PurposeAnti‐blue lenses that selectively block the harmful portion of the blue light spectrum become commercially available recently. This study aimed to evaluate the protective effect of anti‐blue lens on cultured porcine primary retinal pigmented epithelial (RPE) cells against photo‐irradiation.MethodsPrimary RPE cells were isolated from porcine eyes and cultured to confluence. The cells were characterised by RPE65 using Western Blot. White and blue light emitting diode (LED) light sources as well as the transmittance of the anti‐blue and anti‐UV lenses were characterised by a spectroradiometer. The RPE cells were exposed to ~1.8 × 104 cd/m2 white (peak wavelength at 443 and 533 nm) or blue (peak wavelength at 448 and 523 nm) LED light for 16 hours, with anti‐blue, anti‐UV lens or without lens. Control cells were incubated in the dark. Cellular viability under the different lighting conditions with the anti‐blue or anti‐UV lenses were compared using trypan blue staining and MTT assay.ResultsTrypan blue staining showed that the RPE cellular viability under no light, white light and blue light conditions without any lenses were 94.8 ± 0.4%, 93.7 ± 1.1% and 88.7 ± 2.0% respectively. Blue light irradiation significantly induced more cell death when compared to no light (p = 0.001) and white light (p = 0.005) conditions. MTT assay also revealed significant difference under blue light when compared to no light (p = 0.002) and white light (p = 0.014) conditions. When comparing the effect of anti‐blue and anti‐UV lenses on cell survival, we found that anti‐blue lens showed significantly elevated viability (93.4 ± 1.4% vs 90.6 ± 1.4%) using trypan blue (p = 0.022) and MTT assay (p = 0.029).ConclusionsBlue light exposure induced significant cytotoxicity on RPE cells. The anti‐blue lens significantly reduced the harmful blue spectrum and showed protective effect on RPE cell survival.