Long-chain and very long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids in ocular aging and age-related macular degeneration
- *Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Moran Eye Center, University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, UT 84132
- †Scientific Instruments Division, ThermoFisher Scientific, San Jose, CA 95134
Abstract
Retinal long-chain PUFAs (LC-PUFAs, C12-C22) play important roles in normal human retinal function and visual development, and some epidemiological studies of LC-PUFA intake suggest a protective role against the incidence of advanced age-related macular degeneration (AMD). On the other hand, retinal very long-chain PUFAs (VLC-PUFAs, Cn>22) have received much less attention since their identification decades ago, due to their minor abundance and more difficult assays, but recent discoveries that defects in VLC-PUFA synthetic enzymes are associated with rare forms of inherited macular degenerations have refocused attention on their potential roles in retinal health and disease. We thus developed improved GC-MS methods to detect LC-PUFAs and VLC-PUFAs, and we then applied them to the study of their changes in ocular aging and AMD. With ocular aging, some VLC-PUFAs in retina and retinal pigment epithelium (RPE)/choroid peaked in middle age. Compared with age-matched normal donors, docosahexaenoic acid, adrenic acid, and some VLC-PUFAs in AMD retina and RPE/choroid were significantly decreased, whereas the ratio of n-6/n-3 PUFAs was significantly increased. All these findings suggest that deficiency of LC-PUFAs and VLC-PUFAs, and/or an imbalance of n-6/n-3 PUFAs, may be involved in AMD pathology.
Footnotes
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↵1 To whom correspondence should be addressed. e-mail: paul.bernstein{at}hsc.utah.edu
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- Abbreviations:
- AA
- arachidonic acid
- AMD
- age-related macular degeneration
- CEP
- carboxyethyl pyrrole
- DHA
- docosahexaenoic acid
- EFA
- essential FA
- EI
- electron ionization
- EPA
- eicosapentaenoic acid
- FAME
- fatty acid methyl ester
- LA
- linoleic acid
- LC-FA
- long-chain FA
- LCI
- liquid chemical ionization
- LC-PUFA
- long-chain PUFA
- NIST
- National Institute of Standards and Technology
- OA
- oleic acid
- PA
- palmitic acid
- RPE
- retinal pigment epithelium
- SA
- stearic acid
- SIM
- selected ion monitoring
- VLC-PUFA
- very long-chain PUFA
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This work was supported by grants from the Steinbach Foundation, the Macula Vision Research Foundation, and a departmental grant from Research to Prevent Blindness.
- Received April 18, 2010.
- Revision received August 5, 2010.
- Copyright © 2010 by the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Inc.
