Macular degeneration is a class of blinding disorders characterizedby changes in the macula, the central area of the neural retinathat is responsible for high-acuity vision (see Figure 1). Suchdisorders are the leading causes of irreversible visual lossin elderly persons in the Western world. Newly emerging evidenceimplicates abnormalities in specific components of the extracellularmatrix in these eye diseases. For example, in this issue ofthe Journal, Stone and coworkers (pages 346–353) reportmissense mutations in a gene encoding an extracellular-matrixprotein known as fibulin 5 in patients with the highly prevalentage-related form of . . . [Full Text of this Article]
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From the Center for the Study of Macular Degeneration, Neuroscience Research Institute, University of California at Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara.
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