Effect Evaluation and Mechanism of Jujing Pills in Improving Retinal Injury in Subacute Aging Mice Induced by D-galactose

  OBJECTIVE  To evaluate the effect of Jujing Pills on retinal injury in subacute aging mice induced by D-galactose and explore its mechanism.

  METHODS  A subacute aging model was constructed by subcutaneous injection of D-galactose into mice. Western medicine positive drug AREDS2, Chinese medicine positive drug Qiju Dihuang Pills, low and high dose groups of water extract of Jujing Pill, and low and high dose groups of 50% ethanol extract of Jujing Pill were administered, respectively. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) was used to evaluate the condition of mouse retina and fundus, HE staining was adopted to assess retinal cell damage, TUNEL staining was applied to observe retinal cell apoptosis, kits were used to measure the expression of oxidative stress factors, and western blotting was used to detect the expression of retinal apoptosis and oxidative stress pathway related proteins in mice.

  RESULTS  The extracts of Jujing Pills significantly increased the retinal thickness (P < 0.05), improved the retinal injury and inhibited the apoptosis of retinal cells in model mice (P < 0.05). At the same time, Jujing Pills down-regulated the expression of apoptotic proteins such as Cleaved Caspase-3 and Cleaved Caspase-9 (P < 0.05) while up-regulated the expression ratio of Bcl-2/Bax (P < 0.05). Jujing Pills also significantly increased the expression of antioxidant factors SOD and GSH (P < 0.05), decreased the production of oxidative product MDA (P < 0.05), and significantly up-regulated the expression of antioxidant proteins Nrf2 and HO-1(P < 0.05). The water extracts of Jujing Pills exerted similar retina protection effect with the 50% ethanol extracts.

  CONCLUSION  Jujing Pills can improve the retinal injury of subacute aging model mice, which is related to the inhibition of retinal cell apoptosis and the improvement of oxidative stress.