Our lab recently published a new study involving 99 human donor eyes in which degenerating blood vessels were measured in eyes with healthy aging, early stage macular degeneration, and late stage dry macular degeneration (geographic atrophy). We observed a progressive degeneration of choriocapillaris vessels with advancing macular degeneration, and this blood vessel loss occurred in advance of death of other cell types.
We further assessed ghost vessels in association with high risk complement factor H genotypes and provided electron microscopic analysis of the natural history of choriocapillaris ghosts. This study, which provides further evidence into the degeneration of choroidal blood vessels as a key therapeutic target in macular degeneration, was published in Experimental Eye Research (doi: 10.1016/j.exer.2024.110128).