Protective Effects Of Sodium Tanshinone ⅡA Sulfonate On Retinal Injury Induced By Sodium Iodate In Vitro And In Vivo

Objective:To explore the role and potential mechanism of sodium tanshinone ⅡA sulfonate(STS)in retinal oxidative stress induced by sodium iodate(SI)in vivo and in vitro.Methods:SI was used to simulate oxidative stress injury of retina in vitro and in vivo.Human retinal pigment epithelial cells(ARPE-19)were divided into five groups:normal group,SI(10 mM)group,SI(10 mM)+STS(5,10,20 μM)groups.Cell viability and apoptosis were detected by CCK-8 assay and Annexin V-FITC/PI double staining assay,respectively.Protein expression of Bax,Bcl-2,Bax/Bcl-2,Caspase 3,Nrf2 and HO-1 were detected by Western Blot.To further confirm the protective effect of STS,a mouse retinal injury model was established by intraperitoneal injection of SI solution.C57BL/6 mice were randomly divided into three groups:control group,SI group(40 mg/kg)and SI+STS(30 mg/kg/d)group.Mice were intraperitoneally injected with STS five days in advance,and then eyeball specimens were taken for paraffin sections on the 3rd and 14th days after SI injection,and TUNEL staining,H&E staining and ZO-1 immunofluorescence staining were performed,respectively.Results:Cell experiments showed that STS could reduce the damage of SI to cell viability,inhibit the apoptosis rate of ARPE-19 cells,increase the expression of anti-apoptotic protein Bcl-2,and decrease the pro-apoptotic protein Bax and Bax/Bcl-2 ratio and the expression level of Caspase 3.In addition,STS also increased the expression of antioxidant proteins Nrf2 and HO-1.In vivo,compared with SI group,STS could reduce the apoptosis of retinal cells in mice,prevent the thinning of the retinal and outer nuclear layer,improve the disorder and reduction of the number of cells in the outer nuclear layer,and maintain the retinal barrier in mice,thus achieving the role of protecting the morphology and function of retina.Conclusions:Both in vivo and in vitro,oxidative stress induced by SI caused damage to ARPE-19 cells and mouse retina.STS alleviated the adverse effects caused by SI mainly through the effects of anti-apoptosis,anti-oxidation,improving retinal morphology and repairing retinal barrier.Our study indicated that STS is expected to become a candidate or adjutant drug for the treatment of dry AMD.