Paradox response of cornea to different color intensities of visible light: An experimental study

PLoS One. 2018 May 25;13(5):e0196827. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0196827. eCollection 2018.

Abstract

The technological development is associated with human daily life and had an impact on its social life. Due to the difficulty of estimating the daily exposure to light; research is needed to determine how much natural and man-made lights could affect the cornea. Visible light radiation could have damaging effect on the human eye; the type and degree of damage are related to the duration and the cumulative exposure as well as to the intensity of the rays. There are noticeable increases in using electronic devices and colored lamps in decoration and toys as well, without any specific regulation. We studied the effect of such human activity on the corneal structure and the vibrational characteristics of corneal tissue by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. To achieve these goals, Chinchilla rabbits were exposed to two different lux of blue, green or red color lamps. The results indicate that the corneal tissue responds non-specifically to each lux and accordingly the color. The detected changes are including corneal protein secondary structure as well as lipids, in particular phospholipids. This was concomitant with more ordered membrane bilayer and changes in the corneal membrane phase organization. No lux/color-response relationship was established.

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Color
  • Cornea / metabolism*
  • Cornea / physiology*
  • Light / adverse effects*
  • Lipid Bilayers / metabolism
  • Rabbits

Substances

  • Lipid Bilayers

Grants and funding

The authors received no specific funding for this work.