Abstract
Purpose :
To analyze the accommodation mechanism of the crystalline lens ex vivo using a manual lens stretcher that does not require scleral support.
Methods :
Crystalline lenses were isolated from 10 fresh porcine eyeballs and from 2 posterior poles of cadaver human eyes (Age 21 and 60). Lenses were mounted onto a manual lens stretcher (Bioniko, Miami Fl) directly at the zonules. Pictures were taken of the stretched and unstretched conditions and uploaded into ImageJ. The diameter of the lens was measured and analyzed in MATLAB in both conditions.
Results :
The analysis of porcine lenses revealed the instrument and protocol is robust and reliable. The variability of the measurements between lenses is likely due to inconsistencies with mounting the lens on the device as well as the condition of the lens. Analysis of the young human lens showed an increase in diameter of 0.45 ± 0.27 mm in the stretched condition compared to the unstretched condition, while the old lens showed no change (0.01 ± 0.2 mm).
Conclusions :
The lens stretcher can be used to measure the accommodative power of lenses without need of scleral support as in previous lens stretchers. This provides an efficient solution to study accommodation because it mimics more closely the physiological ability of the lens to accommodate, and because, by eliminating the need of the whole eyeball, it reduces the cost of donor tissue and increases its availability.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2017 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Baltimore, MD, May 7-11, 2017.