ATG7 and age-related macular degeneration: To assess whether AMD activated autophagy in SCCVII cells, lysates of SCCVII cells incubated with AMD (5 μM) or PBS for 24 h were tested by WBs for the evidence of upregulated expression of ATG7, Beclin-1, and LC3, the proteins known to mediate autophagy (Fig. 5c).