The LX-PCR mtDNA bands (<16.2 and >1 kb) from different tissues were quantified and the mean values ± SEM calculated (
Fig. 1). There was no significant difference between the number of LX-PCR mtDNA bands per individual in the normal and AMD retinas (9.30 ± 1.78 vs. 14.3 ± 1.96,
P = 0.088;
Fig. 1A) or the normal and AMD blood samples (3.0 ± 1.18 vs. 5.2 ± 0.80,
P = 0.16;
Fig. 1B). We then examined the number of LX-PCR mtDNA bands in the retinas (
Fig. 1A) versus that in blood (
Fig. 1B) and found significantly more rearrangements and mutations in both the normal (9.3 ± 1.78 vs. 3.0 ± 1.18,
P = 0.019) and AMD (14.33 ± 1.96 vs. 5.2 ± 0.80,
P = 0.0031) samples. Within the same AMD individual, the retina mtDNA showed a significantly higher number of small-sized bands than in the blood (11 ± 1.0 vs. 0.5 ± 0.5,
P = 0.011;
Fig. 1C), but the choroid values were similar (11 ± 1.0 vs. 5.67 ± 2.6,
P = 0.10). Choroidal mtDNA showed the most variability in the LX-PCR mtDNA profile (range, 1–10 small-sized bands), whereas retinas showed the least variability (range, 10–14 bands). This suggests that choroidal mitochondrial mutations may not have a major role in the development of AMD.