VEGFA and age-related macular degeneration: Zhang et al. (2015) revealed that A2E stimulated autophagy in RPE cells in early AMD and elevation of autophagy protected the RPE cells against the adverse effects of A2E by repressing the inflammatory response and decreasing the secretion of VEGFA. Besides, Sayak et al. observed a significant reduction of autophagy proteins in samples from advanced AMD (Mitter et al., 2014).