INTERACTIONS BETWEEN CANTHAXANTHIN AND LIPID MEMBRANES – POSSIBLE MECHANISMS OF CANTHAXANTHIN TOXICITY
Journal Title: Cellular and Molecular Biology Letters - Year 2009, Vol 14, Issue 3
Abstract
Canthaxanthin (beta, beta-carotene 4, 4’ dione) is used widely as a drug or as a food and cosmetic colorant, but it may have some undesirable effects on human health, mainly caused by the formation of crystals in the macula lutea membranes of the retina. This condition is called canthaxanthin retinopathy. It has been shown that this type of dysfunction of the eye is strongly connected with damage to the blood vessels around the place of crystal deposition. This paper is a review of the experimental data supporting the hypothesis that the interactions of canthaxanthin with the lipid membranes and the aggregation of this pigment may be the factors enhancing canthaxanthin toxicity towards the macula vascular system. All the results of the experiments that have been done on model systems such as monolayers of pure canthaxanthin and mixtures of canthaxanthin and lipids, oriented bilayers or liposomes indicate a very strong effect of canthaxanthin on the physical properties of lipid membranes, which may explain its toxic action, which leads to the further development of canthaxanthin retinopathy.
Authors and Affiliations
Agnieszka Sujak
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP84481
- DOI 10.2478/s11658-009-0010-8
- Views 135
- Downloads 0
INTERACTIONS BETWEEN CANTHAXANTHIN AND LIPID MEMBRANES – POSSIBLE MECHANISMS OF CANTHAXANTHIN TOXICITY
Canthaxanthin (beta, beta-carotene 4, 4’ dione) is used widely as a drug or as a food and cosmetic colorant, but it may have some undesirable effects on human health, mainly caused by the formation of crystals in the mac...
TOLL-LIKE RECEPTORS AND THEIR ROLE IN CARCINOGENESIS AND ANTI-TUMOR TREATMENT
Toll-like receptors (TLRs) have been described as major components of the innate immune system, recognizing the conserved molecular structures found in the large groups of pathogens called pathogen-associated molecular p...
A NEW BSMV-BASED VECTOR WITH MODIFIED ß MOLECULE ALLOWS SIMULTANEOUS AND STABLE SILENCING OF TWO GENES
Virus-induced gene silencing is an important tool for functional gene analysis and the vector based on Barley stripe mosaic virus (BSMV) is widely used for the purpose in monocots. Of the tripartite BSMV genome, currentl...
THE MOLECULAR CLONING OF GLIAL FIBRILLARY ACIDIC PROTEIN IN Gekko japonicus AND ITS EXPRESSION CHANGES AFTER SPINAL CORD TRANSECTION
The glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) is an astrocyte-speci?c member of the class III intermediate filament proteins. It is generally used as a specific marker of astrocytes in the central nervous system (CNS). We i...
A MICROARRAY GENE ANALYSIS OF PERIPHERAL WHOLE BLOOD IN NORMAL ADULT MALE RATS AFTER LONG-TERM GH GENE THERAPY
The main aims of this study were to determine the effects of GH gene abuse/misuse in normal animals and to discover genes that could be used as candidate biomarkers for the detection of GH gene therapy abuse/misuse in hu...