Longitudinal OCT and OCTA monitoring reveals accelerated regression of hyaloid vessels in retinal degeneration 10 (rd10) mice

Abstract

The hyaloid vascular system (HVS) is known to have an important role in eye development. However, physiological mechanisms of HVS regression and their correlation with developmental eye disorders remain unclear due to technical limitations of conventional ending point examination with fixed tissues. Here, we report comparative optical coherence tomography (OCT) and OCT angiography (OCTA) monitoring of HVS regression in wild-type and retinal degeneration 10 (rd10) mice. Longitudinal OCTA monitoring revealed accelerated regression of hyaloid vessels correlated with retinal degeneration in rd10. Quantitative OCT measurement disclosed significant distortions of both retinal thickness and the vitreous chamber in rd10 compared to WT mice. These OCT/OCTA observations confirmed the close relationship between HVS physiology and retinal neurovascular development. The distorted HVS regression might result from retinal hyperoxia or dopamine abnormality due to retinal remodeling in rd10 retina. By providing a noninvasive imaging platform for longitudinal monitoring of HVS regression, further OCT/OCTA study may lead to in-depth understanding of the physiological mechanisms of HVS regression in normal and diseased eyes, which is not only important for advanced study of the nature of the visual system but also may provide insights into the development of better treatment protocols of congenital eye disorders.

Longitudinal normative OCT retinal thickness data for wild-type mice, and characterization of changes in the 3×Tg-AD mice model of Alzheimer's disease

“…The decrease in thickness shown in their Figure 2B shows a much faster pace, suggesting that the retina's thinning is faster immediately after birth and slower afterwards. This finding agrees with the rapid eyeball growth up to 40 post-natal days and the slower expansion after that up to 300 post-natal days [ 11 ].…”

“…In another study, Kim et al [ 11 ] report data from seven WT mice, from 14 to 28 post-natal days. While reported mice's body weight matches ours, the authors reported thinner retinas.…”

Concurrent OCT and OCT angiography of retinal neurovascular degeneration in the 5XFAD Alzheimer’s disease mice

“…The system has been employed in multiple functional OCT/OCTA studies. [35][36][37] Briefly, a near-infrared superluminescent diode (λ ¼ 810 nm; Δλ ¼ 100 nm; D-810-HP, Superlum, Carrigtwohill, County Cork, Ireland) was used as a light source. A line CCD camera with 2048 pixels (AViiVA EM4; e2v Technologies, Chelmsford, United Kingdom) was used for recording OCT spectra in the custom-built OCT spectrometer.…”

In vivo retinal imaging in translational regenerative research

“…In addition, retinal vascular diseases, such as diabetic retinopathy, is associated with changes in retinal vasculature. Recently, OCT-angiography (OCTA) technology has emerged that can detect changes in retinal and choroidal circulation noninvasively in human and animal eyes (102)(103)(104)(105). Until the development of OCTA, fluorescein angiography and indocyanine green angiography were used for in vivo visualization of retinal and choroidal circulation.…”