Death of retinal ganglion cells suppressed by oligomeric proanthocyanidin

The death of retinal ganglion cells is a hallmark of many optic neurodegenerative diseases such as glaucoma and retinopathy.

Oxidative stress is one of the major causes of cell death.

A recent study, published in the Neural Regeneration Research (Vol. 8, No. 25, 2013), has shown that grape seed extract can protect retinal ganglion cells against oxidative stress-induced apoptosis.

In this study, Prof. Kwok-Fai So, an academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Prof. Daxiang Lu from Jinan University, China shows that oligomeric proanthocyanidin, enriched in grape seeds, has a protective effect on retinal ganglion cells against oxidative stress-induced injury, as confirmed by using both RGC-5 cell lines and retinal explant culture.

These findings imply a potential application of oligomeric proanthocyanidin in the clinical treatment of many neural diseases, from glaucoma, ischemia to neurodegenerative disease.