In vivo fluorescence imaging of primate retinal ganglion cells and retinal pigment epithelial cells.
The ability to resolve single cells noninvasively in the living retina has important applications for the study of normal retina, diseased retina, and the efficacy of therapies for retinal disease. We describe a new instrument for high-resolution, in vivo imaging of the mammalian retina that combines the benefits of confocal detection, adaptive optics, multispectral, and fluorescence imaging. The instrument is capable of imaging single ganglion cells and their axons through retrograde transport in ganglion cells of fluorescent dyes injected into the monkey lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN). In addition, we demonstrate a method involving simultaneous imaging in two spectral bands that allows the integration of very weak signals across many frames despite inter-frame movement of the eye. With this method, we are also able to resolve the smallest retinal capillaries in fluorescein angiography and the mosaic of retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) cells with lipofuscin autofluorescence.
Gray
Daniel C
DC
Center for Visual Science, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY 146271, USA. dgray@cvs.rochester.edu
Merigan
William
W
Wolfing
Jessica I
JI
Gee
Bernard P
BP
Porter
Jason
J
Dubra
Alfredo
A
Twietmeyer
Ted H
TH
Ahamd
Kamran
K
Tumbar
Remy
R
Reinholz
Fred
F
Williams
David R
DR
D000818:Animals; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes; D008254:Macaca nemestrina; D008856:Microscopy, Fluorescence / Q000379:methods*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012165:Retinal Ganglion Cells / Q000166:cytology*; D055213:Retinal Pigment Epithelium / Q000166:cytology*
D005456:Fluorescent Dyes