Astaxanthin Has a Potential Role in Antioxidation and Oxidative Damage Repair in UVC Irradiated Mice

The anti-oxidative activity and oxidative damage repair potential of dietary AS in UVC irradiated mice was studied in present study. The activities of superdismutase (SOD) and glutathione peroxidase (GPx) in the liver and serum of mice increased dramatically at treatment with a dose of 100 mg/kg bodyweight AS during 10 days UVC light irradiation in comparison with the control group. Concurrently, the gene expression levels of sod1 , sod2 , gpx1 and gpx2 , as determined by real-time quantitative PCR, were also up-regulated in the liver in the AS treated group during the UVC irradiation. For further understanding the oxidative damage repair potential of dietary AS in UVC irradiated mice, after 7 days AS and VE treatment, the SOD and GPx activities also increased significantly in liver and serum in mice fed with AS compared to the UVC light treated group. The results obtained here strongly suggested that AS reduces the UVC irradiation oxidative stress dramatically in short time.