Abstract
Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the leading cause of legal blindness in elderly individuals in the developed world, affecting 30–50 million people worldwide. AMD primarily affects the macular region of the retina that is responsible for the majority of central, color and daytime vision. The presence of drusen, extracellular protein aggregates that accumulate under the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE), is a major pathological hallmark in the early stages of the disease. The end stage ‘dry’ and ‘wet’ forms of the disease culminate in vision loss and are characterized by focal degeneration of the RPE and cone photoreceptors, and choroidal neovascularization (CNV), respectively. Being a multifactorial and genetically heterogeneous disease, the pathophysiology of AMD remains unclear, yet, there is ample evidence supporting immunological and inflammatory processes. Here, we review the recent literature implicating some of these immune processes in human AMD and in animal models.
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Abbreviations
- AMD:
-
Age-related macular degeneration
- RPE:
-
Retinal pigment epithelium
- CNV:
-
Choroidal neovascularization
- CEP:
-
Carboxyethylpyrrole
- BRB:
-
Blood retinal barrier
- MSA:
-
Mouse serum albumin
- IL:
-
Interleukin
- CCDKO:
-
Ccl2/Cx3cr1 double knockout
- Crb1:
-
Crumbs-like 1
- DAMPs:
-
Danger-associated molecular patterns
- NLRs:
-
Nod-like receptors
- NLRP3:
-
NLR family, pyrin domain containing 3
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Ozaki, E., Campbell, M., Kiang, AS., Humphries, M., Doyle, S., Humphries, P. (2014). Inflammation in Age-Related Macular Degeneration. In: Ash, J., Grimm, C., Hollyfield, J., Anderson, R., LaVail, M., Bowes Rickman, C. (eds) Retinal Degenerative Diseases. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology, vol 801. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-3209-8_30
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-3209-8_30
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