Choroidal Changes in Rhesus Macaques in Aging and Age-Related Drusen.

Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci

Department of Ophthalmology & Vision Science, University of California, Davis, Sacramento, California, United States.

Published: September 2023

AI Article Synopsis

  • The study investigates choroidal thickness and vascularity in aged rhesus macaques to understand changes related to aging and age-related macular degeneration (AMD).
  • Using optical coherence tomography, researchers analyzed 244 eyes from 122 macaques, measuring various parameters including choroidal thickness (CT) and choroidal vascularity index (CVI), and assessing the impact of soft drusen.
  • Findings show that choroidal thickness and vascularity decrease with age, but eyes with soft drusen are thicker and more vascular, displaying similarities to pachydrusen seen in human AMD patients.

Article Abstract

Purpose: Choroidal vascular changes occur with normal aging and age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Here, we evaluate choroidal thickness and vascularity in aged rhesus macaques to better understand the choroid's role in this nonhuman primate model of AMD.

Methods: We analyzed optical coherence tomography (OCT) images of 244 eyes from 122 rhesus macaques (aged 4-32 years) to measure choroidal thickness (CT) and choroidal vascularity index (CVI). Drusen number, size, and volume were measured by semiautomated annotation and segmentation of OCT images. We performed regression analyses to determine any association of CT or CVI with age, sex, and axial length and to determine if the presence and volume of soft drusen impacted these choroidal parameters.

Results: In rhesus macaques, subfoveal CT decreased with age at 3.2 µm/y (R2 = 0.481, P < 0.001), while CVI decreased at 0.66% per year (R2 = 0.257, P < 0.001). Eyes with soft drusen exhibited thicker choroid (179.9 ± 17.5 µm vs. 162.0 ± 27.9 µm, P < 0.001) and higher CVI (0.612 ± 0.051 vs. 0.577 ± 0.093, P = 0.005) than age-matched control animals. Neither CT or CVI appeared to be associated with drusen number, size, or volume in this cohort. However, some drusen in macaques were associated with underlying choroidal vessel enlargement resembling pachydrusen in human patients with AMD.

Conclusions: Changes in the choroidal vasculature in rhesus macaques resemble choroidal changes in human aging, but eyes with drusen exhibit choroidal thickening, increased vascularity, and phenotypic characteristics of pachydrusen observed in some patients with AMD.

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Source
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10547013PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.1167/iovs.64.12.44DOI Listing

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