Retina and Optic Nerve Research Laboratory, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
Retina and Optic Nerve Research Laboratory, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada; Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
Microvasc Res. 2020 Nov;132:104055. doi: 10.1016/j.mvr.2020.104055. Epub 2020 Aug 8.
Optical coherence tomography angiography (OCT-A) allows in vivo, non-invasive, functional imaging of retinal perfusion. The purpose of this study was to determine the reliability of OCT-A in visualizing the complete retinal vasculature by comparing in vivo OCT-A images to matched ex vivo retinal tissue in mice. Adult female C57BL/6 mice were imaged to obtain OCT-A images of the superficial vascular complex, intermediate capillary plexus and deep capillary plexus. Z-stack fluorescence images of whole-mounted retinas, labeled for vascular endothelial cells by anti-isolectin immunohistochemistry and FITC-dextran perfusion, were generated. The OCT-A and fluorescence images were manually colocalized and vessel length measured for each of the techniques. Mean vessel length among all plexuses showed less than 13% difference between OCT-A and lectin immunohistochemistry and less than 4% difference between OCT-A and FITC-dextran perfusion. The strength of the correlation between OCT-A and lectin immunohistochemistry ranged from 0.46-0.95, while that between OCT-A and FITC-perfusion ranged from 0.67-0.88. OCT-A visualized retinal vasculature in vivo to a similar extent in matched ex vivo histology images. Our results show that OCT-A is a reliable method for acquiring in vivo images of retinal perfusion in mice, with the ability to differentiate each vascular plexus.
光学相干断层扫描血管造影术（OCT-A）允许对视网膜灌注进行体内、非侵入性、功能成像。本研究的目的是通过将体内 OCT-A 图像与匹配的离体小鼠视网膜组织进行比较，确定 OCT-A 可视化完整视网膜血管系统的可靠性。对成年雌性 C57BL/6 小鼠进行成像，以获得浅层血管复合物、中间毛细血管丛和深层毛细血管丛的 OCT-A 图像。生成了通过抗异凝集素免疫组织化学和 FITC-葡聚糖灌注对整个视网膜进行标记的血管内皮细胞的 Z 堆叠荧光图像。手动将 OCT-A 和荧光图像进行共定位，并测量每种技术的血管长度。所有丛之间的平均血管长度显示 OCT-A 与凝集素免疫组织化学之间的差异小于 13%，OCT-A 与 FITC-葡聚糖灌注之间的差异小于 4%。OCT-A 与凝集素免疫组织化学之间的相关性强度范围为 0.46-0.95，而 OCT-A 与 FITC-灌注之间的相关性强度范围为 0.67-0.88。OCT-A 在体内可视化视网膜血管系统的程度与匹配的离体组织学图像相似。我们的结果表明，OCT-A 是一种可靠的方法，可用于获取小鼠视网膜灌注的体内图像，具有区分每个血管丛的能力。
