Fig. 4

VEGF has been demonstrated to be produced and secreted by RPE cells. VEGF-induced angiogenesis is involved in the pathogenesis of several retinopathies including AMD, retinopathy of prematurity, and neovascular glaucoma [24]. VEGFR-1 and VEGFR-2 both bind to VEGF-A [25]. VEGFR-2 exhibits broad pro-angiogenic effects while VEGFR-1 has a greater affinity to its ligand but is more tightly regulated with less potent activity [26]. Pie charts adjacent to proteins represent the protein’s relative abundance in the periphery (blue), macula (orange), and fovea (gray) based on the mass spectrometry data provided by the Skeie and Mahajan [5] study