Ferulic acid (FA) protects human retinal pigment epithelial cells from H₂ O₂ -induced oxidative injuries

The aim of present study is to investigate whether Ferulic acid (FA), a natural polyphenol antioxidant, was able to protect ARPE-19 cells from hydrogen peroxide (H₂ O₂ )-induced damage, and elucidate the underlying mechanisms. Our results revealed that FA pre-treatment for 24 hours can reverse cell loss of H₂ O₂ -induced ARPE-19 cells via the promotion of cell proliferation and prevention of apoptosis, as evidenced by 5-ethynyl-2'-deoxyuridine (EdU) incorporation and terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP nick end-labelling (TUNEL) assay, respectively. Moreover, the addition of FA (5 mM) can decrease Bax and cleaved caspase-3 protein expression, but increase Bcl-2 protein expression in ARPE-19 cells. Furthermore, H₂ O₂ -induced oxidative stress in ARPE-19 cells was significantly alleviated by FA, illustrated by reduced levels of ROS and MDA. In addition, the attenuated antioxidant enzymes activities of (SOD, CAT and GPX) and GSH level were reversed almost to the normal base level by the pre-addition of FA for 24 hours. In all assays, FA itself did not exert any effect on the change of the above parameters. These novel findings indicated that FA effectively protected human ARPE-19 cells from H₂ O₂ -induced oxidative damage through its pro-proliferation, anti-apoptosis and antioxidant activity, suggesting that FA has a therapeutic potential in the prevention and treatment of AMD.