Publication: Oxidative damage in age-related macular degeneration
Authors
Shen, J.K. ; Dong, A. ; Hackett, S.F. ; Bell, W.R. ; Green, W.R. ; Campochiaro, P.A.
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Publisher
Murcia: F. Hernández
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DOI
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info:eu-repo/semantics/article
Description
Abstract
Epidemiologic studies have suggested that
elderly patients who consumed diets rich in antioxidants
throughout their lives are less likely to be afflicted with
age-related macular degeneration (AMD). This led to the
Age-Related Eye Disease Study, which showed that
supplements containing antioxidant vitamins and zinc
reduce the risk of progression to severe stages of AMD.
Despite these data that indirectly implicate oxidative
damage in the pathogenesis of AMD, there has not been
any direct demonstration of increased oxidative damage
in the retinas of patients with AMD. In this study, we
used biomarkers of oxidative damage in postmortem
eyes from patients with AMD and comparably aged
patients without AMD to directly assess for oxidative
damage. Sections from 4 eyes with no pathologic
features of AMD showed no immunofluorescent staining
for markers of oxidative damage, while sections from 8
of 12 eyes with advanced geographic atrophy showed
evidence of widespread oxidative damage in both
posterior and anterior retina. Only 2 of 8 eyes with
choroidal neovascularization and 2 of 16 eyes with
diffuse drusen and no other signs of AMD showed
evidence of oxidative damage. These data suggest that
widespread oxidative damage occurs in the retina of
some patients with AMD and is more likely to be seen in
patients with advanced geographic atrophy. This does
not rule out oxidative damage as a pathogenic
mechanism in patients with CNV, but suggests that a
subpopulation of patients with geographic atrophy may
have a major deficiency in the oxidative defense system
that puts the majority of cells in the retina at risk for
oxidative damage.
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