Zeaxanthin Inhibits Hypoxia-Induced VEGF Secretion by RPE Cells through Decreased Protein Levels of Hypoxia-Inducible Factors-1α

Figure 5

Effects of hypoxia and zeaxanthin on VEGF mRNA expression of RPE cells. (a) Representative RT-PCR profiles from three experiments. Cells were cultured under hypoxia (1% oxygen) with (H + Z) and without zeaxanthin (H). Cells cultured under normal oxygen condition were used as the control (N). Cells were collected 24 hours later, mRNA was extracted, and RT-PCR analysis was performed as described in Section 2. GAPDH was used as an internal loading control. (b) Quantitative analysis showed that the expression of VEGF mRNA (, ) by cells exposed to hypoxia (1% oxygen) was significantly increased (H) and zeaxanthin significantly inhibited hypoxia-induced expression of VEGF (H + Z). , compared with the controls.

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