Effect of Lutein and Antioxidant Supplementation on VEGF Expression, MMP-2 Activity, and Ultrastructural Alterations in Apolipoprotein E-Deficient Mouse

Table 4

The effect of the different treatments on RPE and BM deposit severity, vacuolization, and BM thickness.

	WT-C	AE-C	AE-MV15	AE-MV50	AE-LUT
BM thickness	0.45±0.03 **	1.08±0.05	0.78±0.07	0.58±0.04 *	0.75±0.06
Frequency of images with evidence of BLamD	−	+++	++	+	++
Presence of lucent areas in BM	−	++	+	−	+
Vacuolization in RPE	−	+++	+	+	+

Absence (−), any (+), moderate (++), and severe (+++) presence. BM thickness shown in µm (mean ± SD). *𝑃<0.05 and **𝑃<0.001 versus AE-C (𝑛=3-4 for each group).