Cholesterol: Bad for Heart and Eyes

Cholesterol: Bad for Heart and Eyes
By John Gever, Deputy Managing Editor, MedPage Today
Published: April 03, 2013

Excess cholesterol in macrophages within ocular blood vessels may help trigger neovascular, or "wet," age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a laboratory study suggested.

A series of experiments in mice showed that cholesterol levels in macrophages from older mice were higher than in younger animals, apparently because of impairments in the ABCA1 cholesterol efflux mechanism, according to Rajendra Apte, MD, PhD, of Washington University in St. Louis, and colleagues.

Topical as well as systemic treatment of older mice with a liver X receptor (LXR) agonist known as T0-901317, which boosts cholesterol efflux from cells, reduced the degree of choroidal neovascularization in a laser-induced model of the human disease, the researchers also reported in the April 2 issue of Cell Metabolism.

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