Fig. 6: RPE-specific knockout of lipophagy recapitulate features of a dry AMD-like phenotype. | Nature Communications

Fig. 6: RPE-specific knockout of lipophagy recapitulate features of a dry AMD-like phenotype.

From: Apolipoprotein M attenuates age-related macular degeneration phenotypes via sphingosine-1-phosphate signaling and lysosomal lipid catabolism

Fig. 6

A RPE-specific lysosomal acid lipase conditional knockout mice (Lipa-RPE/-RPE) were generated and placed on 6 weeks of high fat diet and subsequently assessed (created in BioRender. Lee, T. (2025) https://BioRender.com/li4w1zf). B RPE functional assessment using light bleach dark adaptation electroretinography (n = 6) revealed significantly reduced functional recovery in Lipa-RPE/-RPE mice compared to wild-type mice (***p = 0.000468, Two-way ANOVA). C) Quantitative assessment of lipid droplets per high-powered field within the RPE (n = 76) revealed significantly increased lipid droplets in Lipa-RPE-RPE mice (****p = 0.00000000001, two-tailed Welch’s t-test). D, E Representative TEM imaging of RPE from either wild-type or Lipa-RPE/-RPE mice. Red arrows point to lipid droplets. F High fat diet fed Lipa-RPE/-RPE mice were treated with either ApoMKO or ApoMTG plasma (created in BioRender. Lee, T. (2025) https://BioRender.com/li4w1zf). G RPE functional assessment using light bleach dark adaptation electroretinography (n = 6) revealed no significant differences by two-way ANOVA in functional recovery. H Quantitative assessment of lipid droplets per high-powered field within the RPE (n = 100) revealed no significant differences according to two-tailed Welch’s t-test without multiple comparisons in lipid droplet counts. I, J Representative TEM imaging of RPE from either wild-type or Lipa-RPE/-RPE mice. Red arrows point to lipid droplets. The scale bar represents 2 μm. Values are mean ± SE. Source data is provided as a Source Data file.

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