Three-dimensional Imaging Coupled with Topological Quantification Uncovers Retinal Vascular Plexuses Undergoing...

Area of Science:

• Ophthalmology
• Vascular Biology
• Medical Imaging

Background:

• Murine models are crucial for understanding microvascular changes in retinopathy and cardiovascular diseases.
• Retinal vascular network disarray is a hallmark of conditions like retinopathy.
• Light-sheet fluorescence microscopy (LSFM) enables high-resolution 3-D imaging of retinal vasculature.

Purpose of the Study:

• To characterize retinal vascular plexuses undergoing obliteration using LSFM and topological quantification.
• To investigate the impact of oxygen-induced retinopathy (OIR) on the 3-D retinal microvascular network.
• To identify potential therapeutic targets for preventing vision impairment associated with OIR.

Main Methods:

• Coupling 3-D LSFM with topological quantification techniques.
• Utilizing clustering coefficients and Euler numbers to assess vascular connectivity.
• Applying principal component analysis (PCA) for auto-segmentation of vascular structures.

Main Results:

• Demonstrated preferential obliteration of the secondary (outer) retinal plexus and bridging vessels in an OIR mouse model.
• Showed significantly reduced global vascular connectivity in hyperoxia-exposed retinas compared to normoxia.
• Corroborated obliteration of vertical sprouts, with impaired branching, connectivity, and reduced vessel volumes/lengths.

Conclusions:

• 3-D LSFM combined with topological quantification effectively reveals hyperoxia-induced vascular obliteration in the retina.
• Topological measures provide novel network insights into OIR-associated vascular damage.
• This approach has translational significance for evaluating therapies against vision loss in OIR.