AMD is characterized by a heightened immune response, sizeable deposits of fat debris at the back of the eye called soft drusen (early AMD), destruction of nerve cells, and growth of new diseased blood vessels (wet AMD, late form). While only accounting for roughly 10% of cases of AMD, wet AMD is the primary form leading to blindness. Current treatments becomes less effective with time. It is therefore important to find new ways to prevent the onset of this debilitating disease.
While many studies on the genetics of AMD have identified several genes that predispose to AMD, no single gene can account for development of the disease. Epidemiological data suggests that in men, overall abdominal obesity is the second most important environmental risk factor, after smoking, for progression to
«Our study suggests that diets rich in fat alter the gut microbiome in a way that aggravates wet AMD, a vascular disease of the aging eye. Influencing the types of microbes that reside in your gut either through diet or by other means may thus affect the chances of developing AMD and progression of this blinding disease», says Dr Sapieha. Professor Sapieha holds the Wolfe Professorship in Translational Vision Research and a Canada Research Chair in retinal cell biology. The study was funded by the Foundation Fighting Blindness, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, and thr Fond de Recherche en Ophthalmologie de l’Université de Montreal.
