Symposium on pseudocapsular exfoliation and glaucoma. Fibrillopathia epitheliocapsularis: review of the nature and origin of pseudoexfoliative deposits.

Although opinions vary to some extent, the general consensus is that the pseudoexfoliative component is an abnormal basement membrane material with amyloid-like characteristics; this is synthesized at a variety of ocular and extraocular sites. The resultant material is found to accumulate within, and in some instances to replace, the normal basement membranes of the producing cells. Also, some of the material detaches and, through aqueous humour dispersal, becomes deposited on a variety of surfaces throughout the anterior segment of the eye.