Glycolipids implicated as mediators of clinically visible retinal pigment epithelial migration in age-related macular degeneration

The retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) is the metabolic gatekeeper to the photoreceptors, thus playing many essential roles in healthy vision. Under certain conditions, RPE cells may transdifferentiate and migrate from the RPE layer. Applying multiple imaging modalities including ex vivo optical coherence tomography, autofluorescence microscopy, and imaging mass spectrometry (IMS) to human retina tissue, we compared lipid profiles in ectopic and orthotopic RPE cells. The dataset comprises six IMS datasets, with three acquired in positive ion mode and three in negative ion mode.