Abstract: Objective：To compare the daily intake of lutein+zeaxanthin, serum concentrations of lutein, zeaxanthin and serum lipids between age-related macular degeneration (AMD) patients and controls. Methods: AMD was diagnosed and graded according to the fundus morphology and the standard of agerelated eye disease study (AREDS). In the study, 51 subjects with early AMD, 51 with medium AMD and 51 without AMD as controls were recruited. Food frequency questionnaires were used to calculate the daily intake of lutein and zeaxanthin. The concentrations of serum lutein and zeaxanthin were measured by HPLC and the concentrations of serum lipids including serum total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG), high density lipoprotein (HDL) and low density lipoprotein (LDL) were measured by Roche fullautomatic biochemical analyzer. Results: The daily intake of lutein+zeaxanthin, the concentrations of serum lutein and serum zeaxanthin of the subjects with medium AMD were 7 870.458 μg/d, 0.180 μmol/L, 0.029 μmol/L respectively, which were all significantly lower than those of the controls (11 297.959 μg/d, 0.285 μmol/L, 0.044 μmol/L, P<0.05); The concentrations of serum HDL of the subjects with early and medium AMD were (1.29±0.27) mmol/L and (1.16±0.30) mmol/L respectively, both of which were significantly lower than that of the controls ［(1.45±0.35) mmol/L, P<0.001］. Conclusion: The development of AMD might be affected by the daily intake of lutein+zeaxanthin and the serum concentrations of lutein and zeaxanthin. The concentration of serum HDL might be related to the occurrence of AMD.

Key words: Macular degeneration, Lutein, Diet, Serum, Zeaxanthin