Effect of Light Emitting Diodes (LED) Exposure on Vitreous Metabolites-Rodent Study

Abstract

The exposure to blue and white Light emitting diodes (LED) light leads to damage in the visual system with short-term LED light exposure. Chronic exposure, adaptive responses to light, and self-protective mechanisms against LED light exposures need to be explored, and it would be essential to understand the repercussions of LED radiation on vitreous metabolites. A total of 24 male Wistar rats were used in this study, divided into four groups (n = 6 in each group). Three experimental groups of rats were exposed to either blue, white, or yellow LED light for 90 days (12:12 light-dark cycle routine) with uniform illumination (450–500 lux). Standard lab settings were used to maintain control rats. Vitreous fluids were subjected to untargeted metabolomics analysis using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC/MS). PLS-DA analysis indicated significant the separation of m metabolites among groups, suggesting that LED exposure induces metabolic reprogramming in the vitreous. Amino acids and their modifications showed significant alterations among groups which included D-alanine, D-serine (p < 0.05), lysine (p < 0.001), aspartate (p = 0.0068), glutathione (p = 0.0263), taurine (p = 0.007), and hypotaurine. In chronic light exposure, the self-protective or reworking system could be depleted, which may decrease the ability to compensate for the defending mechanism. This might fail to maintain the metabolomic structural integrity of the vitreous metabolites.