Age-related macular degeneration and retinal pigment epithelium wound healing.
Choroidal new vessel (CNV) excision may improve vision in patients with age-related macular degeneration (AMD) by eliminating the source of subretinal bleeding and scarring. Visual recovery after CNV excision is usually poor in AMD patients, probably because of removal of the associated retinal pigment epithelium (RPE), coupled with the inability of native RPE at the edge of the dissection bed to resurface the iatrogenic RPE defect. Experiments using in vitro and in vivo RPE wound-healing models have provided insight into the factors that regulate RPE wound healing in situ.Wound-healing studies using aged submacular human Bruch's membrane in organ culture show that resurfacing of localized RPE defects is influenced by the depth of damage to Bruch's membrane as well as factors that are intrinsic to the aged RPE at the wound edge. The Bruch's membrane organ-culture paradigm provides a surface for RPE wound healing that closely resembles the surface on which RPE must grow after CNV excision in AMD patients. An understanding of the factors that influence RPE wound healing might lead to treatments that stimulate RPE resurfacing and improve visual outcome after CNV excision.
Institute of Ophthalmology and Visual Science, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, New Jersey Medical School, 90 Bergen Street, Box 1709, Newark, NJ 07101-1709, USA.
Ilene K
IK
Sugino
Hao
H
Wang
Marco A
MA
Zarbin
D000375:Aging / Q000473:pathology*; D000818:Animals; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D006801:Humans; D008268:Macular Degeneration / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000628:therapy; D009924:Organ Culture Techniques; D010857:Pigment Epithelium of Eye / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D020127:Recovery of Function / Q000502:physiology; D012163:Retinal Detachment / Q000209:etiology* / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000628:therapy; D014945:Wound Healing / Q000502:physiology