Search Our Scientific Publications & Authors

Adv Exp Med Biol 2021 ;1256:295-314

Department of Ophthalmology, Massachusetts Eye and Ear, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) remains a leading cause of blindness worldwide. The assessment and management of patients with this condition has evolved in the last decades. In this chapter, current standards for diagnosis, follow-up, and treatment of patients with AMD are reviewed and summarized. Read More

Adv Exp Med Biol 2021 ;1256:143-189

Department of Ophthalmology, Duke Center for Macular Diseases, Duke Eye Center, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC, USA.

Increasing evidence over the past two decades points to a pivotal role for immune mechanisms in age-related macular degeneration (AMD) pathobiology. In this chapter, we will explore immunological aspects of AMD, with a specific focus on how immune mechanisms modulate clinical phenotypes of disease and severity and how components of the immune system may serve as triggers for disease progression in both dry and neovascular AMD. We will briefly review the biology of the immune system, defining the role of immune mechanisms in chronic degenerative disease and differentiating from immune responses to acute injury or infection. Read More

Adv Exp Med Biol 2021 ;1256:121-141

Section on Neuron-Glia Interactions in Retinal Disease, National Eye Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA.

Multiple lines of investigation have demonstrated that inflammation plays significant roles in etiology of age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Although interventional trials in AMD therapy targeting inflammatory pathways have been conducted, they have not yet been successful and a detailed understanding as to why some have failed is still elusive. One limitation is the relative dearth of information on how immune cells interact with retinal cells to generate AMD phenotypes at each disease stage. Read More

Adv Exp Med Biol 2021 ;1256:89-119

Wilmer Ophthalmological Institute, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, MD, USA.

A healthy choroidal vasculature is necessary to support the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) and photoreceptors, because there is a mutualistic symbiotic relationship between the components of the photoreceptor/retinal pigment epithelium (RPE)/Bruch's membrane (BrMb)/choriocapillaris (CC) complex. This relationship is compromised in age-related macular degeneration (AMD) by the dysfunction or death of the choroidal vasculature. This chapter will provide a basic description of the human Bruch's membrane and choroidal anatomy and physiology and how they change in AMD. Read More