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Updated: Sep 12, 2026

Optic Nerve Transection: A Model of Adult Neuron Apoptosis in the Central Nervous System
Published on: May 12, 2011
Apoptosis in human retinal degenerations
1Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Chinese University of Hong Kong.
Purpose:
This paper examined the role of apoptosis in human retinal degenerations including pathologic myopia, age-related macular degeneration, serous retinal detachment, retinal lattice, and paving stone degenerations.
Method:
Thirty-seven enucleated human eyes with 1 of the above-mentioned retinal degenerations were studied by histopathology and by TdT-mediated biotin-dUTP nicked-end labelling (TUNEL) technique.
Results:
Tunnel labelling characteristic DNA fragmentation of apoptosis was observed in photoreceptor cells in 2 of the 4 eyes with pathologic myopia and in 4 of 16 eyes with age-related macular degeneration, 2 of which were exudative and 2 of which were atrophic. However, only a few scattered photoreceptor cells were labelled in 4 of 8 eyes with serous retinal detachment secondary to malignant melanoma of the choroid. Moreover, none of the photoreceptors cells in the 4 eyes with retinal lattice degeneration and 6 eyes with retinal paving stone degeneration were labelled.
Conclusions:
Apoptosis is 1 of the important pathways of photoreceptor cell degeneration in pathologic myopia and age-related macular degeneration.
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