Research Article

Protective Effects of Oral Astaxanthin Nanopowder against Ultraviolet-Induced Photokeratitis in Mice

Figure 1

Dose-dependent effect of nano-AST on corneal epithelial thickness, 24 hours after UVB irradiation. (a) H&E staining of corneal epithelia and underlying stromal tissue. Corneal epithelium was noticeably thicker with well-preserved cellular morphology in the 50 mg/kg nano-AST group compared to the UVB control and lower concentrations (0.5 and 5 mg/kg) of nano-AST treatment. Scale bar = 25 μm. (b) Quantification of corneal epithelial thickness revealed the significant protective effect of 50 mg/kg nano-AST, indicated by significantly thicker epithelium () than untreated UVB controls. While 0.5 and 5 mg/kg nano-AST treatments did not reach significance () when compared to the UVB control group, the overall averaged values indicate a possible dose-dependent response. (eyes) per group. n.s., ; ; .
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