Vitamin E in human neural retina and retinal pigment epithelium: Effect of age

Abstract

Vitamin E levels were measured in retina and retinal pigment epithelium from human eye bank donors of from 12–82 years of age. In comparison to an age group of 12–45 years, humans 59–82 years of age had a higher concentration of vitamin E in both retina and retinal pigment epithelium. Depending on age, the concentration of vitamin E in retinal pigment epithelium was from 4–7 times higher than in retina. Vitamin E accumulated in the human retinal pigment epithelium in an age dependent fashion, so that by 80 years it was from 3–4 times higher than in those 20 years old. The level of vitamin E in young human retinal epithelium, however, was higher than in comparable bovine tissue. The age-related increase in human tissue vitamin E levels does not appear to be affected by postmortem time.