Figure 2.

Autofluorescent granules disappear individually, reducing AF. Degranulation results in a diminished or absent AF signal from affected cells, yet the cells are still present. (A) The central cell (white arrowheads) is circular rather than polygonal and has redistributed granules. (B) The central cell (white arrowheads) is almost devoid of granules. (C) The central cell has a few individual granules and one aggregation (see also Fig. 3). (D) An enlarged cell with a circular profile has an actin cytoskeleton (parallel bands, between yellow arrows) and few granules. (E, F) Epifluorescence and bright-field images of the same area show that decreased AF could also be associated with densely packed melanosomes, in both healthy and AMD eyes. Few AF granules are visible (E). Donors: (A–C) 84 years, male, incipient AMD; (D) 86 years, female, incipient AMD; (E, F) 69 years, male, late exudative AMD. Autofluorescent intensity signals were normalized to a fluorescence reference but were not normalized across panels. Scale bar: 20 μm.