The EyeSAGE database, combining three different gene-profiling platforms including the authors' multidonor-derived retina/RPE SAGE libraries and existing single-donor retina/RPE libraries, is a powerful resource for definition of the retina and RPE transcriptomes. It can be used to identify retina-specific genes, including alternatively spliced transcripts and to prioritize candidate genes within mapped retinal disease regions.

Multiple RPE cell survival factors are expressed by human RPE cells. TNF-alpha regulates expression of some of these factors in an NF-kappaB-dependent manner, whereas others are not influenced by NF-kappaB. RPE cell survival factors may protect RPE cells from apoptosis normally and in diseases such as age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and proliferative vitreoretinopathy (PVR).