Skip to main content
. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2023 Feb 15.
Published in final edited form as: Arch Biochem Biophys. 2021 Dec 20;716:109111. doi: 10.1016/j.abb.2021.109111

Figure 6. The contents of lutein, zeaxanthin, and β-carotene detected in the retinas of the ApoA-I−/−/Bco2−/− mice and the Bco2−/− mice by HPLC.

Figure 6.

The levels of all three carotenoids in the retinas of ApoA-I−/−/Bco2−/− mice were reduced compared with the Bco2−/− mice. ApoA-I deficiency caused a dramatic reduction of β-carotene but not lutein and zeaxanthin, suggesting that β-carotene is transported from RPE/choroids to the retina by HDL. In contrast, lutein and zeaxanthin are probably delivered by LDL. The ratio of lutein:zeaxanthin:β-carotene is 1.0: 2.4: 1.1 in the Bco2−/− mice, while it becomes 1.0: 2.0: 0.5 in the ApoA-I−/−/Bco2−/− mice. Carotenoids were extracted from four retina samples pooled from twenty ApoA-I−/−/Bco2−/− double knockout mice and four retina samples pooled from twenty Bco2−/− mice (5 pairs of retinas/sample). *, P<0.05. Error bars represent standard deviation.