Protective Effect of Lycopene and Melatonin on Goat Retinal Pigment Epithelium (RPE) Cell Culture Exposed to Hydrogen Peroxide (H2O2)

1. Aulia Abdul Hamid Abdullah¹
2. Hasna Retnawati¹
3. Safaruddin Refa¹
4. Nadia Artha Dewi¹
5. Hidayat Sujuti¹

¹Faculty of Medicine Brawijaya University, Malang, Indonesia

Purpose: To evaluate effect of lycopene and melatonin supplementation on goat RPE cell culture exposed with H2O2.

Methods: Primary culture of goat RPE cells were supplemented with various doses of lycopene or melatonin: 10 μM, 30 μM, and 100 μM 24 hours. Afterwards, the culture medium was discarded and replaced with medium containing 250 μM H2O2 for one hour. Positive control (no supplementation) and negative control (no treatment) cells were also prepared. The cells were then collected and levels of malondialdehyde (MDA) were assessed with thiobarbituric assay method. All treatment were done in triplicate.

Results: In the lycopene control group, average MDA level were increased from 1.250 μg/ml in the negative control to 1.850 μg/ml in the positive control. Cells treated with lycopene 10 μM, 30 μM, and 100 μM had lower MDA levels of 0.737 μg/ml, 1.015 μg/ml, and 1.036 μg/ml respectively. Average MDA level of melatonin control group were increased from 2.33 μg/ml in the negative control to 3.38 μg/ml in the positive control. Cells treated with melatonin 10 μM, 30 μM, and 100 μM had lower MDA levels of 2.53 μg/ml, 1.72 μg/ml, and 1.72 μg/ml respectively. Statistical analysis with ANOVA and post hoc LSD showed that lycopene and melatonin significantly decrease the MDA level compared to positive controls (p=0.01 and p=0.001 respectively). However, the dose dependent effect of supplementation were not always consistently observed.

Conclusion: Lycopene and melatonin supplementation significantly reduced the level of MDA in goat RPE primary cell culture treated with H2O2.