Differences in macular pigment optical density across four ethnicities: a comparative study

Abstract

<jats:sec><jats:title>Objective:</jats:title><jats:p> The aim of this study is to compare macular pigment optical density levels across four different ethnicities and study its influence on ganglion cell layer and retinal nerve fibre layer thickness across these ethnicities. </jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Methods:</jats:title><jats:p> Consenting adults visiting the ophthalmology and optometry clinics for a routine eye examination without any ocular comorbidity were enrolled. Participants underwent optical coherence tomography for macular thickness, retinal nerve fibre layer thickness and ganglion cell layer thickness. The macular pigment optical density levels were determined in the dominant eye using the QuantifEye device by trained observers. </jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Results:</jats:title><jats:p> In total, 336 eyes of 336 participants with a mean age of 39.2 ± 14.4 years were included of which 103 (30%) were Caucasians, 111 (33%) were African Americans, 29 (9%) were South Asian Indians and 94 (28%) were Hispanics. The mean macular pigment optical density value across the entire study population was 0.47 ± 0.15. South Asian Indians (0.58 ± 0.16) and Hispanics (0.52 ± 0.15) had significantly higher mean macular pigment optical density values compared with Caucasians (0.41 ± 0.16) and African Americans (0.38 ± 0.15). Linear regression analysis showed that there was a significant association between ethnicities and macular pigment optical density values when adjusted for age (β coefficient = 0.31, 95% confidence interval = 0.029–0.58, p &lt; 0.001 for South Asian Indian and Hispanic ethnic groups compared with African Americans). There were no differences in the retinal nerve fibre layer and ganglion cell layer thickness across ethnic groups. Linear regression analysis also did not reveal any significant association between macular pigment optical density levels and retinal nerve fibre layer or ganglion cell layer thickness. </jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Conclusion:</jats:title><jats:p> Caucasians and African Americans have lower macular pigment optical density compared with South Asian Indians and Hispanics. There is no clinically significant association between macular pigment optical density levels and retinal nerve fibre layer and ganglion cell layer thickness in healthy individuals across races. </jats:p></jats:sec>

Visual Function and Macular Carotenoid Changes in Eyes with Retinal Drusen—An Open Label Randomized Controlled Trial to Compare a Micronized Lipid-Based Carotenoid Liquid Supplementation and AREDS-2 Formula

“…Although it is commonly used clinically, it is prone to error due to its subjective nature. Heterochromatic flicker photometry due to its small footprint is perhaps most common clinical device utilized to measure MPOD [4,8,10,15,16,26,41,44,45,48,66,67,72,73]. However, objective techniques such as dual-wavelength autofluorescence [74] or macular pigment reflectometry [21,75,76] could decrease variability in results, given that the participants in this study were clinical patients and not trained participants in a psychophysical study.…”

Comparison of Antioxidant Properties of Dehydrolutein with Lutein and Zeaxanthin, and their Effects on Cultured Retinal Pigment Epithelial Cells

“…More recently, lutein and zeaxanthin have been identified within the brain and associated with a cognitive benefit and are currently under further investigation as treatments to slow the cognitive decline in aging and dementia [ 120 , 121 , 122 , 123 ]. As stated in the introduction, increasing macular pigment density has been demonstrated to improve several aspects of the visual function in addition to their photoprotection function [ 14 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 ]. Carotenoids are unsurpassed singlet oxygen quenchers and accumulate in the retina in remarkably high concentrations (>1 mM), thereby, having the potential to inhibit damage induced in the retina by blue light-generated singlet oxygen.…”

“…The ability of lutein, zeaxanthin, and their derivatives to quench electronically excited states is of physiological importance because these carotenoids accumulate in the areas of the human body, such as the skin and eye, where, due to exposure to ultraviolet or visible light in the presence of photosensitisers, generation of excited electronic states of photosensitizers and singlet oxygen can occur [ 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 ]. Moreover, in the macular part of the retina, where lutein and zeaxanthin accumulate in particularly high concentrations, they can act as optical filters absorbing incoming blue light, thereby preventing blue light from reaching the parts of photoreceptive neurons and retinal pigment epithelium (RPE), where visual pigments are present and potent photosensitizers can accumulate [ 14 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 ]. Therefore, the macular carotenoids are credited with improving visual functions and protecting photosensitive parts of the retina from blue-light-induced oxidative damage.…”

Macular Pigment Reflectometry: Developing Clinical Protocols, Comparison with Heterochromatic Flicker Photometry and Individual Carotenoid Levels

“…The MPOD can be measured in-vivo using both subjective [ 5 , 6 , 8 , 10 , 11 , 25 , 26 , 28 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 ] and objective techniques [ 47 , 48 , 49 , 50 , 51 , 52 , 53 , 54 , 55 , 56 , 57 , 58 , 59 , 60 ]. The subjective technology heterochromatic flicker photometry is far more readily available in measuring MPOD [ 5 , 6 , 8 , 10 , 11 , 25 , 26 , 28 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 ]. Although it is proven to be reliable and repeatable it is prone to the difficulties that affect any psychophysical tests [ 45 ].…”