Macrophages feel their age in macular degeneration
J. Clin. Invest. Martine J. Jager, et al. 117:3182 doi:10.1172/JCI34070 [Go to this article.]

Figure 1
Role of normal versus senescent macrophages in ocular neovascularization. In this issue, Kelly et al. (7) report that following laser-induced injury of the retina, macrophage infiltration occurs in both young (<2 months) and old (>18 months) mice. However, this macrophage infiltration is associated with neovascularization in older mice only. RT-PCR analyses of macrophages isolated from the retinae of older mice revealed lower expression levels of TNF-α, FasL, and IL-6 than in macrophages in the retinae of younger mice. An increase in IL-10 expression was observed in the retinae of all mice, although baseline levels were higher in old mice. These data suggest that as the mice age, increased IL-10 expression and altered cytokine expression limits the ability of senescent macrophages to regulate injury-induced neovascularization in the eye. The authors’ findings provide insight into the role of macrophages during neovascularization in AMD.