CFH Loss in Human RPE Cells Leads to Inflammation and Complement System Dysregulation via the NF-κB Pathway.

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the leading cause of vision loss in the elderly, is a degenerative disease of the macula, where retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) cells are damaged in the early stages of the disease, and chronic inflammatory processes may be involved. Besides aging and lifestyle factors as drivers of AMD, a strong genetic association to AMD is found in genes of the complement system, with a single polymorphism in the complement factor H gene (), accounting for the majority of AMD risk. However, the exact mechanism of dysregulation confers such a great risk for AMD and its role in RPE cell homeostasis is unclear.