Macrophage elastase (MMP12) critically contributes to the development of subretinal fibrosis

Macular subretinal fibrosis is the end-stage complication of neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD). RPE/Choroid from control and subretinal fibrosis mice were collected and processed for RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) analysis to investigate the molecular mechanism of subretinal fibrosis. Overall design: Subretinal fibrosis was induced in C57BL/6J mice using the two-stage laser-induced protocol. Twenty days later, RPE-Choroids from 3 subretinal fibrosis mice and 3 healthy control mice were collected and processed for RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) analysis. DESeq2 was used to determine the differentially expressed genes (DEGs). Gene Ontology (GO) and KEGG were used to analyze the enriched pathways. The expression of the notable DEGs was verified by qPCR.