A Canadian study published in the prestigious journal Science elucidates a new molecular mechanism that may cause age-related macular degeneration (AMD).
The research at Hôpital Maisonneuve-Rosement, in Montreal, shows how life stressors such as obesity reprogram immune system cells and make them destructive to the eye as it ages.
“We wanted to know why some people with a genetic predisposition develop AMD while others are spared,” said Université de Montréal ophtalmology professor Przemyslaw (Mike) Sapieha, who led the study by his postdoctoral fellow Dr. Masayuki Hata.
“Although considerable effort has been invested in understanding the genes responsible for AMD, variations and mutations in susceptibility genes only increase the risk of developing the disease, but do not cause it,” Sapieha explained.
“This observation suggests that we must gain a better understanding of how other factors such as environment and lifestyle contribute to disease development.”
AMD is a major cause of irreversible blindness worldwide and affected approximately 196 million people in 2020. It comes in two forms:
- dry AMD, characterized by the accumulation of fatty deposits at the back of the eye and the death of nerve cells in the eye,
- and wet AMD, which is characterized by diseased blood vessels that develop in the most sensitive part of the sight-generating tissue, called the macula.
