Long-chain and very long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids in ocular aging and age-related macular degeneration

• Published in: Journal of lipid research Vol. 51; no. 11; pp. 3217 - 3229
• Main Authors: Liu, Aihua, Chang, James, Lin, Yanhua, Shen, Zhengqing, Bernstein, Paul S.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Elsevier Inc 01.11.2010; The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology; Elsevier
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Aging - metabolism; Child; Choroid - metabolism; eye; Eye - metabolism; Eye - physiopathology; Fatty Acids, Unsaturated - chemistry; Fatty Acids, Unsaturated - isolation & purification; Fatty Acids, Unsaturated - metabolism; Female; Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry; Humans; Macular Degeneration - metabolism; Male; Middle Aged; retina; retinal pigment epithelium (RPE)/choroid; Retinal Pigment Epithelium - metabolism; Young Adult; eye; retina; retinal pigment epithelium (RPE)/choroid
• ISSN: 0022-2275; 1539-7262
• DOI: 10.1194/jlr.M007518

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.