PDF(Pubmed)
Abstract：
The Retinal Pigment Epithelium (RPE) plays a prominent role in diseases such as age-related macular degeneration, but imaging individual RPE cells is challenging due to their high absorption and low autofluorescence emission. The RPE lies beneath the highly reflective photoreceptor layer (PR) and contains absorptive pigments, preventing direct backscattered light detection when the PR layer is intact. Here, we used near-infrared autofluorescence adaptive optics scanning laser ophthalmoscopy (NIRAF AOSLO) and transscleral flood imaging (TFI) in the same healthy eyes to cross-validate these approaches. Both methods revealed a consistent RPE mosaic pattern and appeared to reflect a distribution of fluorophores consistent with findings from histological studies. Interestingly, even in apparently healthy RPE, we observed dynamic changes over months, suggesting ongoing cellular activity or alterations in fluorophore distribution. These findings emphasize the value of NIRAF AOSLO and TFI in understanding RPE morphology and dynamics.
摘要：
视网膜色素上皮（RPE）在年龄相关性黄斑变性等疾病中起着重要作用，但成像单个RPE细胞是具有挑战性的，由于其高吸收和低自发荧光发射。RPE位于高反射感光层（PR）下方，并含有吸收性颜料，防止直接反向散射光检测时，PR层是完整的。这里,我们在同一只健康的眼睛中使用了近红外自发荧光自适应光学扫描激光检眼镜(NIRAFAOSLO)和经巩膜泛光成像(TFI)来交叉验证这些方法.两种方法都显示出一致的RPE镶嵌模式，并且似乎反映了与组织学研究结果一致的荧光团分布。有趣的是,即使在看起来健康的RPE中，我们观察到几个月来的动态变化，提示正在进行的细胞活动或荧光团分布的改变。这些发现强调了NIRAFAOSLO和TFI在理解RPE形态和动力学方面的价值。
