VEGFA and atrophic macular degeneration: One key hallmark of geographic atrophy is vascular dropout of the choriocapillaris, which would reduce oxygen delivery, and has also been shown to negatively impact visual acuity.[41, 42] It is also likely that CNV is a physiological response to hypoxia that is deleterious when it occurs in the retina.[43] Further, while hypoxia has been shown to increase inner retinal circulation in rats,[44] it is a known stimulus for the production of hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF),[19, 45] which are key drivers of CNV.