Inflammation and Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD)

Abstract

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the leading cause of blindness in the elderly. The cause of AMD is complex and many risk factors have been implicated including age, family history (genetics), diet, smoking, and other environmental risk factors. Over the past decade, studies has found that inflammation play a large role in the pathogenesis of age-related macular degeneration (AMD). In fact, the main genetic changes (polymorphism) associated with AMD were found to be genes that regulate inflammation, most notably complement Factor H. This review ties together many studies done over the past decade to give us new insight into the role inflammation plays in the development of AMD.

Keywords::

• age-related macular degeneration (AMD)
• inflammation
• immune system
• retinal degeneration
• pathogenesis
• drusen
• Factor H gene
• complement.

Declaration of interest: The author has received Genentech Grant Support.