Fig 1: Intraocular CCL2 levels and CCR2+ inflammatory monocytes are increased in atrophic AMDA. CCL2 ELISA of aqueous humours of geographic atrophy (GA) patients and control subjects (n = 18 GA patients n = 22 control patients, student t-test p < 0.0001; Mann–Whitney test p < 0.0001).B–D. CCL2 immunohistochemistry (red staining) on macular sections of (B) control donor tissues, (C and D) within the GA lesion.E–H. CCR2 immunohistochemistry (red staining) on macular sections of (E) control donor tissues, inset: major retinal vessel containing erythrocytes and leucocytes, (F) within the GA lesion, inset: adjacent to GA lesion (G) laminar deposit (H) soft drusen.I–L. (I) CCR2 (green staining), (J) CD18 (red staining), (K) merge double labelling of a GA lesion. (L) Quantification of intraretinal and subretinal CCR2/CD18 positive cells expressed as CCR2+ cells/500 mm of the atrophic lesion (n = 10 GA donor maculae from 7 patients: age, mean (SD): 84 (8.8) and n = 5 control maculae from 5 patients: age, mean (SD): 83 (8.8), *students t-test p = 0.001).M, N. IBA-1 immunohistochemistry (red staining) on macular sections of (M) control donor tissues, (N) within the GA lesion.O. (O) Quantification of intraretinal and subretinal IBA-1 positive cells expressed as IBA-1+ cells/500 mm of the atrophic lesion (subjects same as above, *students t-test p = 0.005). B–L and N and O: representative images from 5 healthy donors, 7 donors (10 eyes) with GA and 3 donors with age related maculopathy (4 eyes), controls omitting the primary antibody showed no staining. All values are represented as mean ± SEM. CTL: control; GA: geographic atrophy; ONL: outer nuclear layer; INL: inner nuclear layer; Ch: choroid; iR: inner retina; sR: subretinal; Scale bar B–J = 50 µm.