This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Novel visible-light OCT may improve retinal disease diagnosis, assessment
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
A collaborative team from Bascom Palmer Eye Institute and Florida International University has developed a novel visible-light OCT technology for imaging rhodopsin, according to a Bascom Palmer press release.
A study, supported by the NIH, reported that VIS-OCT technology accurately measured rhodopsin distribution and functionally imaged rod photoreceptors in the retinas of rats.
“The VIS-OCT technology for rhodopsin imaging has potentially significant clinical impact. It can be used to construct an accurate topographic distribution of rhodopsin in the retina, ie, a rhodopsin map,” study authors Tan Liu, PhD, Rong Wen, MD, PhD, Byron L. Lam, MD, Carmen A. Puliafito, MD, MBA, and Shuliang Jiao, PhD, wrote in Scientific Reports.
In using VIS-OCT to image rhodopsin, the light-sensing molecule that converts light signals to neuronal signals sent to the brain, clinicians would be able to diagnose and assess disease progression in retinal degenerative disorders, including hereditary retinal degeneration, while also monitoring progression of dry age-related macular degeneration.
“Accurate measurement of rhodopsin in the retina would be of particular value in the assessment of regenerative therapies aimed at restoration of photoreceptors and vision, including transplant stem cell-derived photoreceptors, gene therapies, neuroprotection therapies using neurotrophic factors and other neuroprotective agents,” the authors wrote.
The group is working to make the imaging equipment more “patient-friendly” and to move it into the clinical setting, Jiao said in the press release.
“The rapid development in regenerative medicine to restore vision has raised a hope that regeneration of photoreceptors and restoration of photoreceptor function will become reality in the near future,” Wen said in the release. “When the time comes, this technology will be used to see whether the new photoreceptors are functional.” – by Kristie L. Kahl
Disclosure: The authors report no relevant financial disclosures.
Reference: Liu T, et al. Sci Rep. 2015;doi:10.1038/srep13992.