ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Pharmacol.
Sec. Experimental Pharmacology and Drug Discovery
Safety profile of lutein-based blue dyes and surgical lights
Provisionally accepted
Mario Romano1,2
Federica Conti3
Francesca Lazzara4,5*
Barbara Parolini6
Mariantonia Ferrara7,8
Claudio Bucolo3,9- 1Humanitas University, Milan, Italy
- 2Humanitas Castelli, Bergamo, Italy
- 3Universita degli Studi di Catania, Catania, Italy
- 4University of Catania, Catania, Italy
- 5University of Catania, Center for Research in Ocular Pharmacology-CERFO, Catania, Italy
- 6Eye Care Clinic, Brescia, Italy
- 7Universita degli Studi di Brescia, Brescia, Italy
- 8Universidad de Malaga, Málaga, Spain
- 9Center for Research in Ocular Pharmacology-CERFO, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
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Surgical endoillumination and vital dyes combination has been associated with phototoxicity and retinal damage, despite vital dyes are mainly considered safe. In this perspective, the aim of the present study was to evaluate the effect of lutein-based blue dyes (LBBD) on human retinal pigmented epithelial (ARPE-19) cells, as well as their combination with surgical light exposure. ARPE-19 cells were exposed to LBBDs and/or xenon/LED light according to the following experimental design: phase-1) exposure to LBBDs only; phase-2) exposure to lights only; phase-3) single sequential exposure to LBBDs and xenon/LED light; phase-4) double sequential exposure to LBBDs and xenon/LED light. ATPlite and Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) detection assays were used to assess the impact on cell viability and ROS production, respectively. No cytotoxic effect was detected following the exposure to LBBDs for 5 minutes. LED and xenon lights elicited a cytotoxic effect and an overproduction of ROS for exposure time ³ 5 minutes. The ROS overproduction following 5-minute exposure of ARPE-19 cells to both LED and xenon lights was significantly (p<0.05) counteracted by the pre-treatment with LBBD. Finally, after double sequential exposure to LBBDs and LED/xenon lights, 2%-LBBD induced a significant (p<0.05) reduction of ROS production compared to both LED/xenon-exposure than 1%-LBBD/light-exposure. These findings demonstrated the primary role of light-induced damage as primary contributing factor to the potential retinal damage following peeling procedures. LBBDs provided protective effect against light-induced oxidative damage, highlighting their potential role in enhancing the safety profile of staining in retinal surgery.
Keywords: LED, Xenon, Lutein, ROS, RPE
Received: 12 Sep 2025; Accepted: 03 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Romano, Conti, Lazzara, Parolini, Ferrara and Bucolo. 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: Francesca Lazzara, francesca.lazzara@unict.it
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