In a recent paper by Voigt et al, we studied how gene expression is altered in focal areas of pathology by performing spatial RNA sequencing on a human donor eye with macular neovascularization as well as a healthy control donor. Then, we performed differential expression to identify genes enriched within the area of macular neovascularization and used deconvolution algorithms to predict the originating cell type of these dysregulated genes.

Macular neovascularization is a relatively common and potentially visually devastating complication of age-related macular degeneration. In macular neovascularization, pathologic angiogenesis can originate from either the choroid or the retina, but we have limited understanding of how different cell types become dysregulated in this dynamic process.

This paper was published online at: https://iovs.arvojournals.org/article.aspx?articleid=2792952

Image Above: Human macular neovascular membrane labeled with antibodies directed against NNMT (red) and TIMP3 (green). Blue fluorescence: cell nuclei.