Animal Models for Age-Related Macular Degeneration
互联网
751
Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) has a number of characteristic features including late onset and accumulation of deposits
         (drusen) below the retinal pigment epithelium on Bruch’s membrane in the macula. A progressive increase in these deposits
         (in some individuals) leads to macular blindness, following either the local loss of the retinal pigment epithelium (geographic
         atrophy) or the hemorrhage of new blood vessels that originate in the choroid and invade the compartment between the photoreceptors
         and retinal pigment epithelium (choroidal neovascularization). Over the last few years a number of mouse models for AMD have
         been described that replicate some of the changes manifest in the human disease. This chapter begins with a description of
         the hallmarks of AMD, discusses some of the ideas about the underlying mechanisms and then summarizes the features of AMD
         found in experimental animals that are purported to model this disorder.
      










