This blue absorber,
which forms with age, is lipofuscin, a heterogenous mixture
of „metabolic waste“ that cannot be cleared from the retina.
Lipofuscin accumulates in the retinal pigment epithelium (Fig.),
a layer of cells with essential function for the maintainance of
photoreceptors. Lipofuscin compromises the function of the
retinal pigment epithelium and increased accumulation of
lipofuscin is an indicator for the development of AMD