(Image: Alain Chédotal/INSERM)

These neon cells may be blinding, but targeting them could also help preserve sight. In this close-up image of blood vessels – shown in blue – that supply blood to the retina of a one-week-old mouse, the nuclei of cells lining their walls appear in fluorescent colours. The bright-yellow cells are the ones of interest: they could be targeted to help prevent blindness in ageing eyes.

Age-related macular degeneration, or AMD, often strikes in middle age, causing a person’s vision to deteriorate. A key driver of the disease is excessive growth of obtrusive blood vessels in the retina. A team led by Alain Chédotal of the Institute of Vision in Paris has now discovered that a protein called Slit2 contributes to the rapid increase in offending blood vessels.

The yellow cells in the picture are the ones that are dividing. When this activity occurs in middle age, it triggers the excessive increase in blood vessels that results in AMD. By blocking Slit2, it might be possible to reduce this effect, says Chédotal.


When the team genetically altered mice so that they couldn’t produce Slit2, the animals no longer overproduced the blood vessels that lead to blindness. The researchers think that drugs targeting Slit2 could generate new treatments for AMD.

Pioneering treatments for AMD currently rely on replacing epithelial pigment cells in the retina that are damaged by the disease. A team in the US has used pigment cells made from human embryonic stem cells to reverse damaged sight, in one case allowing a blind man to ride his horse again.

Journal reference: Nature Medicine, DOI: 10.1038/nm.3849