ATG5 and age-related macular degeneration: Furthermore, mice in which the autophagy pathway genes ATG5 and 7 have been conditionally deleted from the RPE, show defects consistent with early AMD (Zhang et al., 2017), while other rodent models of AMD [apolipoprotein E4 (ApoE4) mice fed a high fat diet and apolipoprotein E (ApoE) null animals] show impaired autophagy in aged animals and RPE change consistent with early AMD (Mitter et al., 2014; Vessey et al., 2022).