The novel antioxidant SkQ1 as an effective protector of rat eye tissues during long-term organotypic cultivation

摘要

Cells possess an array of antioxidant mechanisms for cleaning harmful oxidants and reactive oxygen species (ROS), in particular. Despite of this, ROS overproduction induced mainly by light can cause serious damage to the neural retina (NR) and retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) of the eye that finally leads to different retinal pathologies. Among numerous sites of ROS generation in the cell, mitochondrial electron transport is of crucial importance. Recently the novel penetrating cation 10-(6'-plastoquinonyl) decyltriphenylphosphonium was invented [1]. This cation, designated SkQ1, has a remarkable ability to clean the matrix of mitochondria, "the dirtiest place in the cell" in respect of ROS. It has been demonstrated to possess a powerful antioxidant activity in a number of various in vitro and in vivo models. In particular, a strong protective action of SkQ1 has been revealed upon eye tissues of the adult rat [2]. To develop this finding, we describe here the effects of SkQ1 upon morphology and cell viability in the posterior sector of rat eye, including the complex "RPE-choroid-sclera" isolated with or without NR. We found that under conditions of long-term organotypic 3D cultivation [3], 20 nM SkQ1 significantly conserved the native structure of eye tissues and protein expression in their specific cell types. SkQ1 reduced also cell death, prevented RPE sheet from cell withdrawal and RPE cell phenotype changes, and suppressed transmigration of choroidal cells.