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Updated: Apr 18, 2026
Author Spotlight: Advancing Understanding of Age-Related Lens Stiffness Changes
Published on: April 5, 2024
Assessing age-related changes in the biomechanical properties of rabbit lens using a coaligned ultrasound and optical
Chen Wu1, Zhaolong Han1, Shang Wang2
1Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Houston, Houston, Texas, United States.
Purpose:
To evaluate the capability of a novel, coaligned focused ultrasound and phase-sensitive optical coherence elastography (US-OCE) system to assess age-related changes in biomechanical properties of the crystalline lens in situ.
Methods:
Low-amplitude elastic deformations in young and mature rabbit lenses were measured by an US-OCE system consisting of a spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (OCT) system coaligned with a focused ultrasound system used to produce a transient force on the lens surface. Uniaxial compressional tests were used to validate the OCE data.
Results:
The OCE measurements showed that the maximum displacements of the young rabbit lenses were significantly larger than those of the mature lenses, indicating a gradual increase of the lens stiffness with age. Temporal analyses of the displacements also demonstrate a similar trend of elastic properties in these lenses. The stress-strain measurements using uniaxial mechanical tests confirmed the results obtained by the US-OCE system.
Conclusions:
The results demonstrate that the US-OCE system can be used for noninvasive analysis and quantification of lens biomechanical properties in situ and possibly in vivo.
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