The effect of blue light exposure in an ocular melanoma animal model.
BACKGROUND
Uveal melanoma (UM) cell lines, when exposed to blue light in vitro, show a significant increase in proliferation. In order to determine if similar effects could be seen in vivo, we investigated the effect of blue light exposure in a xenograft animal model of UM.


METHODS
Twenty New Zealand albino rabbits were injected with 1.0 x 10(6) human UM cells (92.1) in the suprachoroidal space of the right eye. Animals were equally divided into two groups; the experimental group was exposed to blue light, while the control group was protected from blue light exposure. The eyes were enucleated after sacrifice and the proliferation rates of the re-cultured tumor cells were assessed using a Sulforhodamine-B assay. Cells were re-cultured for 1 passage only in order to maintain any in vivo cellular changes. Furthermore, Proliferating Cell Nuclear Antigen (PCNA) protein expression was used to ascertain differences in cellular proliferation between both groups in formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded eyes (FFPE).


RESULTS
Blue light exposure led to a statistically significant increase in proliferation for cell lines derived from intraocular tumors (p < 0.01). PCNA expression was significantly higher in the FFPE blue light treated group when compared to controls (p = 0.0096).


CONCLUSIONS
There is an increasing amount of data suggesting that blue light exposure may influence the progression of UM. Our results support this notion and warrant further studies to evaluate the ability of blue light filtering lenses to slow disease progression in UM patients.
The Henry C Witelson Ophthalmic Pathology Laboratory and Registry, McGill University Health Center, Montreal, PQ, Canada. sebastian.dicesare@mail.mcgill.ca
Sebastian
S
Di Cesare
Shawn
S
Maloney
Bruno F
BF
Fernandes
Claudia
C
Martins
Jean-Claude
JC
Marshall
Emilia
E
Antecka
Alexandre N
AN
Odashiro
William W
WW
Dawson
Miguel N
MN
Burnier
D000818:Animals; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D049109:Cell Proliferation; D003116:Color; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D005065:Euthanasia; D005134:Eye Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008027:Light; D008545:Melanoma / Q000473:pathology*; D011817:Rabbits; D023041:Xenograft Model Antitumor Assays