AIM: To investigate the effects of blue light and white light on the proliferation of human retinal pigment epithelial cell line(ARPE-19)at different times, and lay a foundation for further detecting the changes of related factors during photodamage and further studying the signal transduction mechanism during light damage.

METHODS:Well-grown ARPE-19 cells were collected for experimentation. The standard curve of CCK-8 was made to determine the proper cell density of ARPE-19 cells and the reaction time of CCK-8 reagent. The cells were divided into dark group, blue light group and white light group, which were irradiated for 3, 6 and 9h respectively. After 12h of light-repellent treatment, CCK-8 method was used to examine the effects of different light sources on the proliferation rate of ARPE-19 cells at different times.

RESULTS: The number of cells per well was selected by CCK-8 standard curve to be 20 000, and the corresponding absorbance value was measured after 4h of the action of CCK-8 solution. The CCK-8 test results showed that the cell proliferation rates of the three groups were significantly different(P<0.01). The cell proliferation rate of the blue light group was significantly different(P<0.001)at 3, 6 and 9h, and the cell proliferation rate decreased gradually with the extension of the illumination time. The cell proliferation rate of the white light group was significantly different(P<0.05)at 3, 6 and 9h; there was a statistically significant difference in the rate of cell proliferation at 3h and 6h in white light(P<0.05), however, there was no significant difference in the rate of cell proliferation at 9h illumination compared with 3h and 6h illumination respectively(P=0.253, 0.120). The proliferation rate of cells under white light for 3-6h showed a downward trend, while that of cells under light for 6-9h showed an upward trend. At the same illumination time, the proliferation rate of the cells in the blue and white groups was lower than that in the dark group, and the cell proliferation rate in the blue group was lower than that in the white group. The difference was statistically significant(P<0.05).

CONCLUSION: The proliferation of ARPE-19 cells was inhibited by light irradiation. The proliferation rate of cells in blue light group was significantly lower than that of white light group. With the increase of light time, the cell proliferation rate decreased.