ABSTRACT
Anthocyanin is a water-soluble flavonoid pigment which is widely found in plants. Studies showed that anthocyanin had protective effect on vision. However, whether anthocyanin has therapeutic effect on cataract remain unclear. In this study, we established the age-related and posterior capsule opacification cataract cell models through inducing oxidative damage of human lens epithelial cells (HLECs) by H2O2 and inducing epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) by transforming growth factor β2 (TGF-β2). The preventative effects of anthocyanin on markers of oxidative damage and EMT were determined by respective assay kits and PCR analysis. Anthocyanin was beneficial to reduce oxidative stress of HLECs, protecting cells from H2O2 induced damage and increasing α-crystallin expression. The potential mechanisms might be that anthocyanin increased the activities of SOD and GSH-Px, which contributes to reduce cellular ROS and MDA level. Besides, anthocyanin inhibited Ca2+ overload, which contributes to protection of cell from apoptosis. Meanwhile, anthocyanin had inhibitory effect on EMT, slowed down cell proliferation, migration caused by TGF-β2 through decreasing mRNA expression levels of EMT markers including COL1A1, COL1A2, COL3, COL4, Fn and α-SMA. The results suggest that anthocyanin could protect HLECs from oxidative damage induced by H2O2 and cell proliferation, migration and EMT induced by TGF-β2, which indicated that anthocyanin may have protective and therapeutic effects on age-related cataract and posterior capsule opacification.