Open AccessIn vivo photothermal optical coherence tomography of endogenous and exogenous contrast agents in the eye
Author(s) -
Maryse Lapierre-Landry,
Andrew Y. Gordon,
John S. Penn,
Melissa C. Skala
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
scientific reports
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.24
H-Index - 213
ISSN - 2045-2322
DOI - 10.1038/s41598-017-10050-5
Subject(s) - optical coherence tomography , in vivo , contrast (vision) , endogeny , photothermal therapy , tomography , computer science , biomedical engineering , biophysics , medicine , optics , ophthalmology , biology , artificial intelligence , physics , genetics
Optical coherence tomography (OCT) has become a standard-of-care in retinal imaging. OCT allows non-invasive imaging of the tissue structure but lacks specificity to contrast agents that could be used for in vivo molecular imaging. Photothermal OCT (PT-OCT) is a functional OCT-based technique that has been developed to detect absorbers in a sample. We demonstrate in vivo PT-OCT in the eye for the first time on both endogenous (melanin) and exogenous (gold nanorods) absorbers. Pigmented mice and albino mice (n = 6 eyes) were used to isolate the photothermal signal from the melanin in the retina. Pigmented mice with laser-induced choroidal neovascularization lesions (n = 7 eyes) were also imaged after a systemic injection of gold nanorods to observe their passive accumulation in the retina. This experiment demonstrates the feasibility of PT-OCT to image the distribution of both endogenous and exogenous absorbers in the mouse retina.