Fig. 8.

Potential cellular response pathways of RPE cells upon AGE stimulation. The two main signaling pathways suggested by our data are the NF-κB pathway and the JAK-STAT pathway. Extracellular receptors that bind AGE known to be present on RPE cells include toll-like receptors (TLRs), receptors for advanced glycation endproducts (RAGEs), and advanced glycation endproducts receptors (AGERs). RAGEs and TLRs are mainly responsible for inflammatory processes within the cell and AGERs are important inhibitors of these signals. Supernatant data that support the two pathways are shown in purple retangles. mRNA data that support the pathways are shown in orange ovals. Studies from the literature that support the pathways shown include: 1, Vlassara and Striker [43]; 2, Chen et al. [62]; 3, Yang et al. [51]; 4, Kim et al. [34]; 5, Oeckinghaus et al. [67]; 6, Kato et al. [68].