ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Ophthalmol.
Sec. Retina
This article is part of the Research TopicRetinal Neuroprotection: Exploring Novel and Repurposed TherapeuticsView all 3 articles
Therapeutic Potential of Taurine in a Pigmented Rat Model of Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD)
Provisionally accepted
Mohammed Attia1
Tonja Pavlovic2Ashley Muliawan1Farjana Tuya1Maria Mihalatos2
Marcin Iwanicki2Jennifer Kang-Mieler1*- 1Department of Biomedical Engineering, Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, United States
- 2Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, United States
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Purpose: To investigate the potential protective effects of taurine supplementation against retinal degeneration in an animal model of mild dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Methods: To test the effects of a taurine supplement in mild dry AMD, sodium iodate (NaIO3)- induced retinal degeneration model was used. Two administration methods, intraperitoneal (IP) and intravenous (IV), were used to deliver NaIO₃ in pigmented Long Evans rats to generate mild and severe dry AMD, respectively. Structural abnormalities were evaluated in vivo using near-infrared (IR) reflectance fundus imaging and optical coherence tomography (OCT). Using the slow progressive mild AMD model, we investigated the neuroprotective effects of oral taurine supplementation (1.5% w/v in drinking water) against NaIO₃-induced retinal degeneration over 20 weeks. In addition, a human Retinal Pigment Epithelium (RPE, hTERT-RPE1) cell culture model was used to directly assess taurine's ability to protect against NaIO₃-related oxidative stress. Results: The high-dose IV model (80 mg/kg) exhibited extensive and severe retinal damage, with ONL thinning by 64.2% and total retinal thickness (TRT) by 47.6%, predominantly in the peripapillary region. In contrast, the lower-dose IP model (50 mg/kg) displayed milder, more gradual deterioration (outer nuclear layer (ONL) thinning by 19.4% and TRT by 11.5%). Oral taurine supplementation significantly preserved ONL and TRT in vivo and supported RPE-1 cell survival, proliferation, and motility, under NaIO₃ conditions. Conclusion: Taurine supplementation provided significant structural protection against NaIO₃-induced damage both in vivo and in cell culture, demonstrating its potential as a therapeutic candidate for mitigating mild dry AMD progression.
Keywords: Dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD), Sodium iodate, Taurine, Oxidative Stress, Retinal pigment epithelium (RPE), Retinal thickness
Received: 09 Sep 2025; Accepted: 14 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Attia, Pavlovic, Muliawan, Tuya, Mihalatos, Iwanicki and Kang-Mieler. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Jennifer Kang-Mieler, jkangmie@stevens.edu
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