BrightFocus Foundation
BrightFocus Foundation

Role of Zinc and HAP in Inducing Sub-Retinal Pigmented Epithelium Deposits and Age-Related Macular Degeneration

Principal Investigator

Richard Thompson, PhD

Richard Thompson, PhD

University of Maryland School of Medicine
Baltimore, MD
Acknowledgement
This grant is made possible in part by a bequest from the estate of June Mae Metzger.

Co-Principal Investigator

Project Goals

We have discovered what appears to be an early step in the process of developing deposits known as drusen in the aging retina, which can lead to age-related macular degeneration (AMD). We believe that zinc and inflammation are involved, and have developed a method for visualizing when the step has occurred in the intact eye. The thrust of our project is to see how zinc and inflammation are involved in this step, and how early and broadly the step may occur in ordinary eyes: does the step happen at 40 years of age, or at 60 years of age, and does it occur in everybody? We anticipate our visualization method may be usable as a screening test for AMD (patent pending), and that our improved understanding of how AMD develops may lead to new, early treatments.

Publications

 Thompson RB, Reffatto V, Bundy JG, Kortvely E, Flinn JM, Lanzirotti A, Jones EA, McPhail DS, Fearn S, Boldt K, Ueffing M, Ratu SG, Pauleikhoff L, Bird AC, Lengyel I. Identification of hydroxyapatite spherules provides new insight into subretinal pigment epithelial deposit formation in the aging eye. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2015 Feb 3;112(5):1565-70. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1413347112. Erratum in: Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2015 Jul 21;112(29):E3971. PubMed PMID: 25605911; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4321314. PubMed Icon Google Scholar Icon

Pilgrim MG, Lengyel I, Lanzirotti A, Newville M, Fearn S, Emri E, Knowles JC, Messinger JD, Read RW, Guidry C, Curcio CA. Subretinal Pigment Epithelial Deposition of Drusen Components Including Hydroxyapatite in a Primary Cell Culture Model. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2017 Feb 1;58(2):708-719. doi: 10.1167/iovs.16-21060. PubMed Icon Google Scholar Icon

First published on: July 09, 2014

Last modified on: May 15, 2024