Macular degeneration is a common eye disease that affects central vision. It usually doesn't affect peripheral vision, but advanced forms of the disease can lead to legal blindness.
There are two forms of the condition. "Dry" macular degeneration occurs when a part of the retina called the macula becomes thinner and stops working well. Tiny deposits of protein and lipids, called drusen, accumulate beneath the macula. "Wet" macular degeneration, which affects 10 to 15% of those with macular degeneration, occurs when abnormal blood vessels form and leak blood into the eye, affecting central vision.
Age is the greatest risk factor, and there are almost 20 million people living with age-related macular degeneration in America. It's the leading cause of vision loss and blindness among older Americans. Smoking, family history of the disease, and European ancestry are risk factors for developing the disease (it's more common in white people, particularly those with lighter-colored eyes).
There's no cure, but treatments including vitamin regimens are available to slow its progression. In 2025, an eye prosthesis clinical trial enabled advanced macular degeneration patients to regain some sight for the first time. Eye prostheses and gene therapy to regenerate retinal cells (still currently in animal studies) are areas of active research for this disease.
Hours of research by our editors, distilled into minutes of clarity.
Around 20 million Americans suffer from macular degeneration, and it's the leading cause of blindness in older Americans. Risk factors for age-related macular degeneration include aging, genetics, smoking, hypertension, obesity, and diet.
This video series features patients discussing their experiences with the disorder, family members describing caregiving, and other insights about the disease.
This part of the eye—roughly the bullseye of the back of the eye—is responsible for processing the central vision of the eye. Degradation of the macula, formally called macular degeneration, leads to symptoms including blurred vision, the need for brighter lighting, and difficulty recognizing faces. The condition doesn't affect peripheral vision, but if you lose central vision, you can still be considered blind.
These yellow deposits are made up of proteins and lipids and come in a variety of sizes. They're common in people aged 50 and older, but amassing many of them is often a symptom of age-related macular degeneration—the most prevalent type of macular degeneration.
These charts show the estimated number of people worldwide with blindness due to cataract, glaucoma, refractive disorders, age-related macular degeneration, malaria, river blindness, trachoma, and other causes.
In a clinical trial, 27 of 32 participants with advanced macular degeneration regained enough vision to read books, food labels, and subway signs about a year after receiving a prosthetic retina device. This is the first device to restore functional vision to patients with incurable vision loss, though in this case they can only see in black and white, with no shades in between.
The small, striped minnow can repair its optic nerve in just under a week. Scientists are interested in hacking its regenerative capacity to grow new retina cells to treat human eye disorders, including macular degeneration. In 2020, the US National Eye Institute had nearly 80 projects focused on zebrafish.
Using gene therapy, a team of Korean researchers has enabled retinal regeneration in mice by blocking the intercellular transfer of a single inhibitory protein. This 2025 finding creates a new potential direction for treating retinal diseases. The work, which is still in animal studies, is projected to enter early-stage clinical trials in the next few years.
University of Southern California researchers have launched a phase 2b clinical trial of a stem cell implant designed to restore vision in people with advanced dry macular degeneration. Patients will be randomized to receive the stem cell implant or a simulated procedure and placebo implant. This type of larger, second-stage clinical trial is designed to confirm efficacy and dosing and to look for side effects. It's one of the stages that precedes the US Food & Drug Administration approval of a device.
The US database of clinical trials listed more than 1,400 macular degeneration trials in early 2026. That doesn't mean every trial is recruiting, but it does indicate there is significant interest in this medical condition.
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