Reduced secretion of fibulin 5 in age-related macular degeneration and cutis laxa

Age‐related macular degeneration (ARMD) is the leading cause of irreversible visual loss in the Western world, affecting approximately 25 million people worldwide. The pathogenesis is complex and missense mutations in FBLN5 have been reported in association with ARMD. We have investigated the role of fibulin 5 in ARMD by completing the first European study of the gene FBLN5 in ARMD (using 2 European cohorts of 805 ARMD patients and 279 controls) and by determining the functional effects of the missense mutations on fibulin 5 expression. We also correlated the FBLN5 genotype with the ARMD phenotype. We found two novel sequence changes in ARMD patients that were absent in controls and expressed these and the other nine reported FBLN5 mutations associated with ARMD and two associated with the autosomal recessive disease cutis laxa. Fibulin 5 secretion was significantly reduced (P