Assessment of trans-scleral iontophoresis delivery of lutein to the human retina.

The efficacy of novel scleral iontophoresis device for in situ delivery of lutein to the human retina was assessed by Resonance Raman spectroscopy (RRS) technique. Eight human donor eye globes were used for experiments, 6 of which underwent trans-scleral iontophoresis delivery of lutein and the other 2 were used as controls. The scleral iontophoresis applicator was filled with liposome-enriched 0.1% lutein solution and the generator's current was set at 2.5 mA and delivered for 4 min. A custom RRS setup was used for detecting lutein in the inner sclera, choroid, retinal periphery and macula of treated samples and controls. Forty minutes after iontophoresis, the inner sclera, choroid and retinal periphery were greatly enriched with lutein (P < .05); no lutein was found in the same ocular regions of non-treated samples. In the same period, the average concentration of lutein in the macula (4.8 ± 1.7 ng/mm2 ) of treated samples was 1.3 times greater than controls (3.7 ± 1.0 ng/mm2 ; P = .4). Scleral iontophoresis was shown to be effective in delivering lutein to the human retina. Future studies will aim at assessing if this therapeutic strategy is valuable to enrich the macular pigment in human subjects.