Abstract
Purpose :
This study is to validate in vivo optical coherence tomography (OCT) for longitudinal monitoring of postnatal retinal development in developing mouse eyes.
Methods :
A custom-designed optical OCT was employed for in vivo retinal imaging of C57BL/6J mice. Three-dimensional (3D) retinal OCT volumetric images were recorded at postnatal 14, 17, 21, 28, and 56 days. The retinal images were manually segmented, and the layer thickness was measured by MATLAB.
Results :
Figure 1 and Table 1 shows the longitudinal OCT monitoring of developing retina. After eye-opening, the retinal layer thickness kept changing until 28 days. Figure 1A shows the enface image of the superior quadrant, which indicates the location of the B-scans in Figure 1B. Figure 1B shows the representative B-scans used for layer thickness measurement. The red arrows indicate an hyporeflective layer (HRL) which was unambiguously observed between postnatal day 14 (p14) to p17, and gradually disappeared after p28. Figure 1C shows the reflectance profiles of the B-scans in Figure 1B. Figure 1D1 shows a comparative analysis of inner retinal layer thicknesses with ages from p14 to p56. The nerve fiber (NFL) thickness decreased from p14 to p21 and then remain the same. The HRL thickness kept decreasing after eye-opening and disappeared at about p28. The inner plexiform layer (IPL) thickness did not change significantly between p14 to p56. The INL thickness kept decreasing after eye-opening until p28. Figure 1D2 shows layer thickness change in the outer retina. The outer nuclear layer (ONL) thickness kept decreasing until p28. On the contrary, the external limiting membrane to retinal pigment epithelium (ELM-RPE) thickness kept increasing until p28. Figure 1D3 shows the thickness change of the inner retina, outer retina, and the whole retina. The thickness of the inner retina and the whole retina kept decreasing until p28. On the contrary, the thickness of the outer retina slightly increased after the eye-opening.
Conclusions :
In vivo OCT provides a feasible solution for longitudinal monitoring of postnatal retinal development. Quantitative OCT analysis revealed distinct outer and inner retinal layer changes, corresponding to eye development. An HRL between the NFL and IPL was observed in developing eyes and gradually disappeared with aging.
This abstract was presented at the 2022 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Denver, CO, May 1-4, 2022, and virtually.