Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a progressive retinal degeneration resulting in central visual field loss, ultimately causing debilitating blindness. While many genetic and environmental risk factors are known for AMD, we currently know less about the mechanisms mediating disease progression. The goal of this article is to illustrate cell types impacted in AMD and demonstrate the implications of those changes, likely beginning in the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE), for remodeling of the the neural retina. Given that age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is effectively a deafferentation of the neural retina caused by the death of photoreceptors, this study explores whether or not AMD retinas exhibited the same retinal plasticity and remodeling observed in retinitis pigmentosa.
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