A research team at the University of Alberta has discovered that an omega-3 fatty acid in fish prevents the accumulation of a toxin called lipofuscin, which can lead to age-related vision loss.
As people age, retina function progressively declines and A2E, a component of the toxin lipofuscin, builds up in the retinal pigment epithelial cells. These events are usually worse in people who have age-related retinal diseases, such as macular degeneration.
At the University of Alberta, a team of investigators under the direction of Yves Sauve, a researcher in the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, conducted studies in mice and discovered that those fed DHA (found in fish oil) did not accumulate the lipofuscin and its compound. Lipofuscin, a brownish pigment left over from the breakdown of damaged blood cells, is also known as the aging pigment.
Sauve noted that this toxin increases twofold as people age. In their lab tests, however, "there was no increase in this toxin whatsoever. Note that this has never been demonstrated before -that supplementing the diet with DHA could make this kind of difference."
“This discovery could result in a very broad therapeutic use,” says Sauve, whose work was recently published in the peer-reviewed journal Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science.
The team has now started another study, looking at people who have age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a condition that results in the loss of central vision and is the main cause of blindness in those over the age of 50. The researchers will look for DNA markers in the blood of study participants. The team wants to determine if participants with certain genetic markers will respond better to increasing amounts of DHA in their diet and if so, why.
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