Gender Differences in Eye Metabolism in Fed and Fasted Mice

Meghashri Saravanan,* Jianhai Wang Du, Rong Xu, and Yekai
Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, West Virginia University Health Science Center, Morgantown, WV 260505-6045

Presentation No.: 10

Assigned Category (Presentation Format): Biological & Health Sciences (Oral Presentations)

Student’s Major: Biology

Metabolic dysfunction is one of the most common features found in multiple eye diseases. Gender, while being an important biological variable, is still an unexplored area of research when it comes to its impact on eye metabolism. This study aims to investigate the effects of gender on ocular metabolome in fasted and unfasted mice. Two groups of two-month-old mice separated by sex, were deprived of food, and fed a normal diet for 18 hours. The ocular tissues (Retina, Retinal Pigment Epithelium, choroid and, Lens), blood, and liver were analyzed for targeted metabolomics using mass spectrometry. Multivariate analysis showed significant gender differences in vitamin metabolism, creatine metabolism, and amino acid metabolism in ocular tissue, especially in fasted mice. Strikingly, the vitamin pantothenic acid is higher in all the female ocular tissues in contrast to liver or blood. In conclusion these findings show that there are eye-specific differences in metabolome influenced by fasting, that show significant gender bias. These findings show great promise in aiding future therapeutic interventions in gender specific ocular metabolic dysfunction.

Funding: National Eye Institute, BrightFocus Foundation

Program/mechanism supporting research/creative efforts: the WVU Vision Research Fellowship Program (Jianha Du)