The Role of Inflammation in AMD (Multifactorial Age-Related Macular Degeneration)—Volume II

Dear Colleagues,

The most common reason for blindness in developed countries is multifactorial age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Its development is associated with aging, gene defects, hypercholesterolemia, hypertension, arteriosclerosis, obesity, smoking, and unhealthy diet. AMD patients experience problems in their daily routines, such as reading, watching TV, driving, and recognizing faces. Straight lines appear wavy or crooked, objects look smaller than normal, and colors are less bright. At the tissue and cellular levels, rod and cone photoreceptors, retinal pigment epithelial cells, and the underlying choroid perform metabolic alterations and degenerative changes in AMD. Chronic oxidative stress, impaired autophagy, mitochondrial dysfunction, and inflammation are strongly linked to AMD.

Reactive oxygen species and oxidized molecules are considered to be major causes of cellular stress, resulting in innate immunity responses through the activation of cell-associated and soluble pattern recognition receptors (PRRs), such as Toll-like or NOD-like receptors (TLR or NLRs), complement factors, scavenger receptors, or pentraxins in AMD pathology. Eventually, chronic oxidative stress, inflammation, and paracellular permeability changes may induce outer blood retinal barrier dysfunction and promote cellular phenotype changes, finally leading to late-stage AMD and visual loss.

A previous Special Issue in Cells, entitled “The Role of Inflammation in AMD (Multifactorial Age-Related Macular Degeneration)”, was very successful. Therefore, we aim to work towards creating an additional Special Issue on this topic.

In this Special Issue, we invite you to provide original clinical reports, experimental studies utilizing cell and animal models, and reviews or shorter perspective articles on all aspects related to the theme of “The Role of Inflammation in AMD”. Expert articles describing genetics/epigenetics, metabolic, mechanistic, functional, cellular, biochemical, or general aspects of inflammation in AMD are welcome.

Prof. Dr. Kai Kaarniranta
Prof. Dr. Anu Kauppinen
Prof. Dr. Heping Xu
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Cells is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• aging
• autophagy
• degeneration
• inflammation
• macula
• oxidative stress
• retina

• The Role of Inflammation in AMD (Multifactorial Age-Related Macular Degeneration) in Cells (9 articles)