Interestingly, transcriptional analysis of RPE/choroid tissue from AMD donors and age-matched controls showed that expression of the proinflammatory genes CCL2 and CXCL10, which is up-regulated upon tissue damage after EC-specific Ihh deletion (Fig. 6 g), is elevated in all major clinical AMD phenotypes (Newman et al., 2012). Here, IHH is linked to age-related macular degeneration.