Fig. 31.1.

A2E-mediated photooxidation alters the expression of inflammation-related genes. Confluent cultured ARPE-19 cells were loaded with 10 µM A2E for 14 days. The cells were then transferred to PBS and exposed to blue light for 15 min. Cells that accumulated A2E alone, exposed to blue light alone, or neither accumulated A2E nor exposed to blue light were used as control. The cells were then cultured in fresh medium containing 1 % FBS for 6 h. Total RNA were extracted from these cells and levels of mRNA for IL-6, IL-8, MCP-1, and CFH were determined by RT-PCR. GADPH was used as a reference for relative quantitation. The relative levels of mRNA for each gene in control cells were arbitrarily designated as 1 and relative levels of mRNA for these genes in treated cells were expressed as fold of that in the control cells. The data are mean ± SD of the results from 6 samples in each group. *indicates p < 0.05 and ** indicates p < 0.001 as compared the control cells that were neither treated with A2E nor blue light