A research team co-led by the University of California, Irvine has discovered that accumulated DNA damage in the retina is a key contributor to age-related macular degeneration and that targeting specific retinal cell types ...
Dec 3, 2024
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A novel free eye disease screening program is engaging adults at high risk for eye disease who are underusing eye care services, according to a study published online Aug. 22 in JAMA Ophthalmology.
Aug 27, 2024
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Scientists at LSU Health New Orleans' Neuroscience Center of Excellence, led by Nicolas Bazan, MD, Ph.D., Boyd Professor and Director, have identified a new mechanism that regulates a protein key for cell survival. It appears ...
Dec 18, 2023
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A team of scientists in Singapore has discovered new behavior in transplanted stem cell derived retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells, which could help treat Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD), one of the leading causes ...
Sep 25, 2023
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Video games could give ophthalmologists an easy window not into the soul, but into eye health and the eye-brain-body connection—the three-way reciprocal communication that influences our actions.
Sep 6, 2023
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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved Izervay (avacincaptad pegol intravitreal solution) for the treatment of geographic atrophy secondary to age-related macular degeneration.
Aug 10, 2023
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The RPE and choroid, located behind the human retina, are fundamental to vision, playing a myriad of roles from light absorption to providing oxygenated blood to the photoreceptor cells. However, our understanding of the ...
Jun 1, 2023
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An estimated 295 million people suffer from visual impairment globally. Around 43 million of those people are living with blindness. While not every form of blindness can be cured, recent scientific breakthroughs have uncovered ...
May 12, 2023
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A new research paper titled "Knockout of AMD-associated gene POLDIP2 reduces mitochondrial superoxide in human retinal pigment epithelial cells" has been published in Aging.
Apr 11, 2023
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Two separate eye diseases may contribute to age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a leading cause of blindness in the United States, according to a new study from New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai.
Jan 9, 2023
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Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a medical condition which usually affects older adults and results in a loss of vision in the center of the visual field (the macula) because of damage to the retina. It occurs in “dry” and “wet” forms. It is a major cause of blindness and visual impairment in older adults (>50 years). Macular degeneration can make it difficult or impossible to read or recognize faces, although enough peripheral vision remains to allow other activities of daily life.
Starting from the inside of the eye and going towards the back, the three main layers at the back of the eye are the retina, which contains the nerves; the choroid, which contains the blood supply; and the sclera, which is the white of the eye.
The macula is the central area of the retina, which provides the most detailed central vision.
In the dry (nonexudative) form, cellular debris called drusen accumulate between the retina and the choroid, and the retina can become detached. In the wet (exudative) form, which is more severe, blood vessels grow up from the choroid behind the retina, and the retina can also become detached. It can be treated with laser coagulation, and with medication that stops and sometimes reverses the growth of blood vessels.
Although some macular dystrophies affecting younger individuals are sometimes referred to as macular degeneration, the term generally refers to age-related macular degeneration (AMD or ARMD).
Age-related macular degeneration begins with characteristic yellow deposits (drusen) in the macula, between the retinal pigment epithelium and the underlying choroid. Most people with these early changes (referred to as age-related maculopathy) have good vision. People with drusen can go on to develop advanced AMD. The risk is considerably higher when the drusen are large and numerous and associated with disturbance in the pigmented cell layer under the macula. Recent research suggests that large and soft drusen are related to elevated cholesterol deposits and may respond to cholesterol-lowering agents.
This text uses material from Wikipedia licensed under CC BY-SA
