Cigarette smoke causes a bioenergetic crisis in RPE cells involving the downregulation of HIF-1α under normoxia.

ABSTRACT: Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the most common blinding disease in the elderly population. However, there are still many uncertainties regarding the pathophysiology at the molecular level. Currently, impaired energy metabolism in retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) cells is discussed as one major hallmark of early AMD pathophysiology. Hypoxia-inducible factors (HIFs) are important modulators of mitochondrial function. Moreover, smoking is the most important modifiable risk factor for AMD and is known to impair mitochondrial integrity. Therefore, our aim was to establish a cell-based assay that enables us to investigate how smoking affects mitochondrial function in conjunction with HIF signaling in RPE cells. For this purpose, we treated a human RPE cell line with cigarette smoke ex

SUBMITTER: Henning Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10600121 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature