2011 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

Analysis of retinal degeneration in vitamin C knockout mice

Research Project

Project/Area Number	22791681
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Research Field	Ophthalmology
Research Institution	Iwate Medical University
Principal Investigator	HASHIZUME Kohei 岩手医科大学, 医学部, 研究員 (50407095)
Project Period (FY)	2010 – 2011
Keywords	ビタミンC / 網膜変性 / 加齢性眼疾患 / 酸化ストレス / 遺伝子
Research Abstract	(1) In vitamin C knockout mice(SMP30 knockout mice) given the 0.0375 g/L aqueous solution of vitamin C, the eye vitamin C level decreased to approximately 1/3 of that in wild type mice. In vitamin C knockout mice given the 1.5 g/L aqueous solution of vitamin C, the eye vitamin C level was similar to that in wild type mice. Thus, the 2 V vitamin C doses can be viewed as appropriate for achieving V vitamin C deficiency and sufficiency, respectively, in the vitamin C knockout mouse eye.(2) In SMP30 knockout mice(vitamin C deficiency) group retina damage and lens opacities induced by UVR-B were significantly larger than in SMP30 knockout mice(vitamin C sufficiency) group or in wild type mice group. It was suggested that vitamin C deficiency increases retina and lens susceptibility to UVR-B induced oxidative stress in mice.