RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Global and Regional Damages in Retinal Ganglion Cell Axon Bundles Monitored Non-Invasively by Visible-Light Optical Coherence Tomography Fibergraphy
JF The Journal of Neuroscience
JO J. Neurosci.
FD Society for Neuroscience
SP 10179
OP 10193
DO 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0844-21.2021
VO 41
IS 49
A1 Marta Grannonico
A1 David A. Miller
A1 Mingna Liu
A1 Pedro Norat
A1 Christopher D. Deppmann
A1 Peter A. Netland
A1 Hao F. Zhang
A1 Xiaorong Liu
YR 2021
UL http://www.jneurosci.org/content/41/49/10179.abstract
AB Retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) exhibit compartmentalized organization, receiving synaptic inputs through their dendrites and transmitting visual information from the retina to the brain through the optic nerve. Little is known about the structure of RGC axon bundles extending from individual RGC somas to the optic nerve head (ONH) and how they respond to disease insults. We recently introduced visible-light optical coherence tomography fibergraphy (vis-OCTF), a technique for directly visualizing and analyzing mouse RGC axon bundles in vivo. In this study, we validated vis-OCTF's ability to quantify RGC axon bundles with an increased number of RGCs using mice deficient in BCL2-associated X protein (BAX−/−). Next, we performed optic nerve crush (ONC) injury on wild-type (WT) mice and showed that the changes in RGC axon bundle width and thickness were location-dependent. Our work demonstrates the potential of vis-OCTF to longitudinally quantify and track RGC damage at single axon bundle level in optic neuropathies.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Nearly all clinical and preclinical studies measure the retinal nerve fiber (RNFL) thickness as the sole indicator of retinal ganglion cell (RGC) damage without investigating RGC axon bundles directly. We demonstrated visible-light optical coherence tomography fibergraphy (vis-OCTF) to directly quantify global and regional RGC axon bundle organizations in vivo as a new biomarker for RGC health. We validated in vivo vis-OCTF measures using both confocal microscopy of the immunostained flat-mounted retina and numerical simulations. Vis-OCTF for monitoring RGC axon bundle organization has the potential to bring new insight into RGC damage in optic neuropathies.