Novel Cellular and Animal Models of Optic Disc Drusen

Optic disc drusen (ODD) are calcified deposits of the anterior optic nerve and result in visual field loss in majority of patients.1 Most common cause of vision loss is anterior ischemic optic neuropathy (AION). Ultrastructurally, the hallmark of ODD is mitochondrial calcification,2 and energy dispersive x-ray analysis reveals that ODD consist of calcium phosphate.3 In this study, we test the hypothesis that calcification of the optic nerve is caused by excessive phosphate (such as in atherosclerosis4) or loss of calcification inhibitors (such as in pseudoxanthoma elasticum5).