Apoptosis in human retinal degeneration

Authors

  • GZ Xu Department of Ophthalmology, Eye and Ear Nose Throat Hospital of Shanghai Medical University, China.
  • WWY Li Department of Ophthalmology, Eye and Ear Nose Throat Hospital of Shanghai Medical University, China.
  • MOM Tso Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, The Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Abstract

Aim:This paper examined the role of apoptosis in human retinal degenerations including pathologic myopia, age-related macular degeneration, serous retinaldetachment, retinal lattice and paving stone degeneration.

Materials and methods: Thirty-seven autopsy human eyes and seven surgically enucleated human eyes with one of the above mentioned retinal degenerations were studied by histopathology and by TdT mediated biotin-dUTP nick-end labelling (TUNEL) technique.

Results: TUNEL labelling characteristic DNA fragmentation of apoptosis was observed in photoreceptor cells in 2 of the 4 eyes with pathologic myopia and in 4 of 16 eyes with age related macular degeneration, two of which were exudative and two of which were atrophic. However,only few scattered photoreceptor cells were labelled in 4 of 8 eyes with serous retinal detachment secondary to malignant melanoma of choroid. Moreover, none of the photoreceptor cells In the 4 eyes with retinal lattice degeneration and 6 eyes with retinal paving stone degeneration were labelled.

Conclusions: Apoptosis is one of the important pathways of photoreceptor cell degeneration in pathologic myopia and age-related macular degeneration.

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Published

1997-03-01

How to Cite

1.
Xu G, Li W, Tso M. Apoptosis in human retinal degeneration. Hong Kong J Ophthalmol [Internet]. 1997Mar.1 [cited 2025May13];1(1):8-16. Available from: https://hkjo.hk/index.php/hkjo/article/view/165

Issue

Vol. 1 No. 1 (1997)

Section

Leading Article

License

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