Aging, age-related macular degeneration, and the response-to-retention of apolipoprotein B-containing lipoproteins.

ABSTRACT: The largest risk factor for age-related macular degeneration (ARMD) is advanced age. A prominent age-related change in the human retina is the accumulation of histochemically detectable neutral lipid in normal Bruch's membrane (BrM) throughout adulthood. This change has the potential to have a major impact on physiology of the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE). It occurs in the same compartment as drusen and basal linear deposit, the pathognomonic extracellular, lipid-containing lesions of ARMD. Here we present evidence from light microscopic histochemistry, ultrastructure, lipid profiling of tissues and isolated lipoproteins, and gene expression analysis that this deposition can be accounted for by esterified cholesterol-rich, apolipoprotein B-containing lipoprotein particles constitutivel

SUBMITTER: Curcio CA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4319375 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature