The intensive metabolism of photoreceptors is delicately maintained by the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) and the choroid. Dysfunction of either the RPE or choroid may lead to severe damage to the retina. Two-photon excited autofluorescence (TPEF) from endogenous fluorophores in the human retina provides a novel opportunity to reveal age-related structural abnormalities in the retina-choroid complex prior to apparent pathological manifestations of age-related retinal diseases. In the photoreceptor layer, the regularity of the macular photoreceptor mosaic is preserved during aging. In the RPE, enlarged lipofuscin granules demonstrate significantly blue-shifted autofluorescence, which coincides with the depletion of melanin pigments. Prominent fibrillar structures in elderly Bruch's membrane and choriocapillaries represent choroidal structure and permeability alterations. Requiring neither slicing nor labeling, TPEF imaging is an elegant and highly efficient tool to delineate the thick, fragile, and opaque retina-choroid complex, and may provide clues to the trigger events of age-related macular degeneration.
Meng Han, Almut Blindewald-Wittich, Frank Holz, Günter Giese, Markolf Niemz, Sarah Snyder, Hui Sun, Jiayi Yu, Michael Agopov, Olivier La Schiazza, Josef Bille
Degeneration of retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells severely impairs the visual function of retina photoreceptors. However, little is known about the events that trigger the death of RPE cells at the subcellular level. Two-photon excited autofluorescence (TPEF) imaging of RPE cells proves to be well suited to investigate both the morphological and the spectral characteristics of the human RPE cells. The dominant fluorophores of autofluorescence derive from lipofuscin (LF) granules that accumulate in the cytoplasm of the RPE cells with increasing age. Spectral TPEF imaging reveals the existence of abnormal LF granules with blue shifted autofluorescence in RPE cells of aging patients and brings new insights into the complicated composition of the LF granules. Based on a proposed two-photon laser scanning ophthalmoscope, TPEF imaging of the living retina may be valuable for diagnostic and pathological studies of age related eye diseases.
Nonlinear laser scanning microscopy is widely used for noninvasive imaging in cell biology and tissue physiology. However, multiphoton fluorescence imaging of dense, transparent connective tissue (e.g., cornea) is challenging since sophisticated labeling or slicing is necessary. High-resolution, high-contrast second harmonic generation (SHG) imaging of corneal tissue based on the intrinsic structure of collagen is discussed. The three-dimensional corneal ultrastructure in depths up to hundreds of microns can be probed noninvasively, without any staining or mechanical slicing. As an important application of second harmonic imaging in ophthalmology, the modification of corneal ultrastructure using femtosecond laser intrastromal ablation is systematically investigated to evaluate next-generation refractive surgical approaches.
Nd:glass femtosecond laser is promising as next generation
mini-invasive eye surgical laser, with the advantages of excellent
beam quality, high surgical precision and minimized side effects.
However, there are still many open questions concerning the
precision, efficiency and collateral effects of femtosecond laser
refractive surgery. By non-invasive microscopic imaging methods
including confocal, multiphoton, second harmonic and atomic force
microscopy, we successfully characterized the three dimensional
corneal ultrastructure without applying fixation and slicing.
Based on the intrinsic properties of collagen, second harmonic
cornea imaging proved to be outstanding to analyze the outcome of
femtosecond laser intrastromal ablations. Strong contrast and
large sensing depth second harmonic image was obtained without
fixation, sectioning or labelling. The three dimensional
ultrastructure of porcine cornea after Nd:glass femtosecond laser
intrastromal surgery was examined to evaluate the concepts of
minimum-invasive all-optical refractive eye surgery. No thermal
damages were recognized and the surgical outcome appeared highly
predictable. Due to the similarities between the physical
principals of nonlinear laser scanning microscopy and femtosecond
laser ablations, a setup of the Nd:glass femtosecond laser system
integrating both the surgery and probing functions was proposed.
Diode pumped Nd:glass all-solid-state femtosecond laser is promising for next generation refractive surgery, with the advantages of excellent surgical precision, minimal tissue damage and improved system stability and compactness. The microscopic evaluation of the outcome of femtosecond laser surgery is crucial before clinical applications. By two-photon laser scanning microscopy and non-invasive second harmonic imaging, the three dimensional ultrastructure of the porcine cornea is visualized without requiring slicing or staining. The minimal-invasive corneal flap cutting and non-invasive intrastromal surgery are investigated. Femtosecond laser intrastromal surgery demonstrated high ablation precision and mimimal side effects. However, there are elongated filaments/streaks observed in the cornea stroma, most likely due to the focusing optics and self-focusing.
Refractive surgery in the pursuit of perfect vision (e.g. 20/10)
requires firstly an exact measurement of abberations induced by
the eye and then a sophisticated surgical approach. A recent extension of wavefront measurement techniques and adaptive optics to ophthalmology has quantitatively characterized the quality of the human eye. The next milestone towards perfect vision is developing a more efficient and precise laser scalpel and evaluating minimal-invasive laser surgery strategies. Femtosecond all-solid-state MOPA lasers based on passive modelocking and chirped pulse amplification are excellent candidates for eye surgery due to their stability, ultra-high intensity and compact tabletop size. Furthermore, taking into account the peak emission in the near IR and diffraction limited
focusing abilities, surgical laser systems performing precise intrastromal incisions for corneal flap resection and intrastromal
corneal reshaping promise significant improvement over today's Photorefractive Keratectomy (PRK) and Laser Assisted In Situ Keratomileusis (LASIK) techniques which utilize UV excimer lasers.
Through dispersion control and optimized regenerative amplification, a compact femtosecond all-solid-state laser with pulsed energy well above LIOB threshold and kHz repetition rate is constructed. After applying a pulse sequence to the eye, the modified corneal morphology is investigated by high resolution microscopy (Multi Photon/SHG Confocal Microscope).
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