title: Modeling Photo-Bleaching Kinetics to Create High Resolution Maps of Rod Rhodopsin in the Human Retina.
abstract: We introduce and describe a novel non-invasive in-vivo method for mapping local rod rhodopsin distribution in the human retina over a 30-degree field. Our approach is based on analyzing the brightening of detected lipofuscin autofluorescence within small pixel clusters in registered imaging sequences taken with a commercial 488nm confocal scanning laser ophthalmoscope (cSLO) over a 1 minute period. We modeled the kinetics of rhodopsin bleaching by applying variational optimization techniques from applied mathematics. The physical model and the numerical analysis with its implementation are outlined in detail. This new technique enables the creation of spatial maps of the retinal rhodopsin and retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) bisretinoid distribution with an ≈ 50μm resolution.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Mathematics, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ehler
authors.affiliation: Department of Mathematics, Applied Mathematics, and Statistics, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, United States of America.
authors.forename: Julia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Dobrosotskaya
authors.affiliation: Office of the Clinical Director, National Eye Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, United States of America.
authors.forename: Denise
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Cunningham
authors.affiliation: Unit on Neuron-Glia Interactions, National Eye Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, United States of America.
authors.forename: Wai T
authors.initials: WT
authors.lastname: Wong
authors.affiliation: Division of Epidemiology and Clinical Applications, National Eye Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, United States of America.
authors.forename: Emily Y
authors.initials: EY
authors.lastname: Chew
authors.affiliation: Department of Mathematics, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, United States of America.
authors.forename: Wojtek
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Czaja
authors.affiliation: Section on Medical Biophysics, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, United States of America.
authors.forename: Robert F
authors.initials: RF
authors.lastname: Bonner
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D008954:Models, Biological; D017948:Retinal Rod Photoreceptor Cells / Q000166:cytology* / Q000378:metabolism*; D012243:Rhodopsin / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D012243:Rhodopsin