Lipofuscin Response to the 'Aging-Reversal' Drug Centrophenoxine in Rat Retinal Pigment Epithelium and Frontal Cortex

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Abstract
The effects of centrophenoxine on the lipofuscin contents of the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) and frontal cortex of the brain were examined in senescent female fischer rats. Rats (106 weeks old) were injected daily for 11 weeks with centrophenoxine (80 to 120 mg/kg body weight) or saline, and then sacrificed along with untreated 28-and 46-week-old controls. The number of lipofuscin granules seen in the RPE by light microscopy increased by 70% between 28 and 117 weeks of age in control animals. There was a concomitant age-related increase in lipofuscin specific fluorescence in the RPE. Centrophenoxine treatment neither reduced the amount of lipofuscin, nor altered the ultrastructural appearance of lipofuscin granules in the RPE. Between 28 and 117 weeks of age, there was an almost nine-fold increase in the lipofuscin content of the frontal cortex of control animals; centrophenoxine treatment failed to reverse this pigment accumulation.