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DNA bank set up for research on AMD in France
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PARIS — A large DNA bank of patients with age-related macular degeneration is being set up in France to study the genetic factors potentially related to the development of the disease.
"AMD is a multifactorial disease, which involves environmental and polygenetic factors, with an extremely large variety of phenotypes. Our classification is based on fluorescein angiography," Eric Souied, MD, said at the meeting of the French Society of Ophthalmology.
The project involves four centers: the Centre Hospitalier Intercommunal in Créteil, the Centre d'Imagerie et de Laser, the Hôpital de XV-XX in Paris and the CHU Pellegrin in Bordeaux.
Questionnaires, demographic data, blood serum samples and DNA samples were collected, and fluorescein angiography was performed for each of the patients.
So far, 1,229 patients have been included over a period of 20 months. The mean age of the patients was 80 years.
"We are hoping that the research done on the angiography-based phenotype, compared with healthy control eyes, will give us a chance to go a step forward in our research on the genetic component of AMD," Dr. Souied said.
This project is part of a larger national project on genetics and AMD started in France in 2004.