Effects of One Berry Herbal Beverage on Retinal Cells and Antioxidant Capacity in Optic Nerve Crushed Mice

To explore the eye protection effect of one berry herbal beverage,optic nerve crush model mice were used. The beverage was administered intragastrically daily for 7 days before and after optic nerve crushed,respectively. The gavage dose of the experimental group was 0.1,1,10,100 mg/kg,and the control group was gavage with phosphate buffer solution. Immunofluorescence staining of retinal stretching preparation,western blot analysis and reactive oxygen species(ROS)fluorescent probe were applied to determine the survival of retinal ganglion cells,retinal protein expression and retinal oxidative stress level of mice after 14 days’ intragastric administration. The results showed that this eye-protecting beverage affected retinal ganglion cells(RGCs)in a dose-dependent manner. Among the 4 dose groups,only 10 mg/kg group significantly increased the survival of retinal ganglion cells(RGCs)by about 8.25% compared with the control group(P<0.05). Under the above-mentioned dosage,there was no significant change observed in the activation and polarization of microglia,a retinal immunoinflammatory cell. But the content of some oxidative stress related proteins in retina,including manganese superoxide dismutase(MnSOD),heme oxygenase 1(HO-1)and nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2(Nrf-2),increased significantly. Meanwhile,the ROS level of retina of experimental group was decreased by about 25.62% and 16.95% for crush injured eye and self-control contralateral eye respectively. Therefore,this beverage could protect eyes by maintaining the activity of retinal ganglion cells,enhancing the antioxidant capacity of retina and reducing the level of reactive oxygen species of retina.