RESEARCH ARTICLE Comparison of Mouse and Human Retinal Pigment Epithelium Gene Expression Profiles: Potential Implications for Age-Related Macular Degeneration

Background The human retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) plays an important role in the pathogenesis of age related macular degeneration (AMD). AMD is the leading cause of blindness worldwide. There is currently no effective treatment available. Preclinical studies in AMDmouse mod-els are essential to develop new therapeutics. This requires further in-depth knowledge of the similarities and differences between mouse and human RPE. Methods We performed a microarray study to identify and functionally annotate RPE specific gene expression in mouse and human RPE. We used a meticulous method to determine C57BL/ 6J mouse RPE signature genes, correcting for possible RNA contamination from its adja-cent layers: the choroid and the photoreceptors. We compared the signature genes, gene expression profiles and functional annotations of the mouse and human RPE. Results We defined sets of mouse (64), human (171) and mouse–human interspecies (22) RPE sig