N-Acetyl-L-cysteine Protects Human Retinal Pigment Epithelial Cells from Oxidative Damage: Implications for Age-Related Macular Degeneration

Figure 2

NAC protects against H₂O₂-induced cell death. RPE cells were treated with H₂O₂ (150, 200, and 250 μM) for 24 hours with or without NAC (500 μM) pretreatment for 2 hours. Cell viability in (a) No AMD () cells and (b) AMD () cells was calculated relative to the no treatment control. (c) NAC protection was calculated as NAC+H₂O₂ relative to H₂O₂ alone. One-sample -tests were used to compare H₂O₂ treatment to no treatment in No AMD and AMD groups (a, b). Unpaired -tests were used to compare peroxide to NAC+peroxide treatments in (a, b). Two-way ANOVA with Sidak’s post hoc was used to compare the effect of the disease state (No AMD vs. AMD) and H₂O₂ concentration in (c). Per: peroxide effect; Dis: disease effect; DxP: interaction between disease effect and peroxide effect. Data are the mean (±SEM). ^† denotes significance from the no treatment control, and denotes significance between conditions. or ^†, , and ^††† were statistically significant.

(a)

(b)

(c)