Mast Cell Infiltration of the Choroid and Protease Release Are Early Events in Age-Related Macular Degeneration Associated with Genetic Risk at Both Chromosomes 1q32 and 10q26

The authors used mass spectrometry–based quantitative proteomics to compare the proteins in human submacular stromal tissue punches from donors who were homozygous for high-risk alleles at either Chr1 or Chr10 with those from donors who had protective haplotypes at these loci, all without clinical features of age-related macular degeneration.