Optical coherence tomography (OCT), a non-invasive method, was used for qualitative assessment of fetal retinal sheet transplants by noninvasive imaging. Rhodopsin-mutant S334ter-line-3 rats with fast retinal degeneration (28-37-day old) were transplanted with fetal retinal sheets from embryonic day (E) 18-19 pigmented normal rats. Retinal thickness measurements from transplanted (n = 51), no surgery control (n = 8), and normal pigmented rat eyes (n = 6) were obtained using a Zeiss stratus OCT-3 scanning instrument. Frozen retinal sections were stained with hematoxylin/eosin. S334ter-line-3 rats showed significant reduction in OCT retinal thickness (p < 0.001) compared to normal pigmented rats at the age of 21 days. In 62% of the transplanted rats, OCT scanning revealed the presence of a subretinal graft, which was confirmed by subsequent histology. Retinal thickness in the transplant area was significantly increased compared to the area outside the transplant and to non-transplanted eyes (p < 0.001). While most of the transplants with single-band OCT images (87%) had rosetted transplants, a considerable proportion of transplants having a multi-band OCT image were found to have well-laminated areas in the graft after histological evaluation. Following retinal transplantation in rodents, OCT imaging data correlated mostly with transplant morphology. OCT is a useful technique for in vivo screening and evaluation of retinal transplants. This technique determines surgical outcomes at a much earlier stage.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.