Instrumentation for Animal-Dedicated In Vivo Eye Imaging by Spectral Domain Optical Coherence Tomography

Columbia University has a large and vigorous vision research community supported by the National Eye Institute (NEI). The Department of Ophthalmology supports and develops clinically-oriented basic and translational research directed towards deciphering the genetic, biochemical and pathological determinants of vision threatening eye disease. This application proposes to advance ongoing NEI-funded research in the Department by the acquisition of shared animal-dedicated Bioptigen SD-OCT (spectral domain optical coherence tomography) instrumentation. The wide range of ocular phenotypes studied by the Major and Minor Users together with the need to serve mouse and rats calls for versatile SD-OCT capability providing an imaging depth that enables biometry and measurement of axial length in mouse models of glaucoma and myopia while at the same time ensuring high resolution images of tear film, corneal thickness, anterior and posterior chambers, and a minimum of 8 OCT reflectivity bands in retina and retinal pigment epithelium (RPE). These requirements will be met by clustering the Bioptigen Envisu R2210 and R4310 units together with animal positioning stages (Leica Microsystems). This system can be expanded if additional applications arise in the future. The advantage of in vivo OCT imaging is that this non-invasive approach enables repetitive longitudinal data collection in the same animal, reduces the time and cost associated with preparation of histological material and obviates artefacts inherent to histological analysis. The Bioptigen Envisu SD-OCT system is state-of-the-art with unmatched level of image resolution. The high-throughput capability will fuel advances in understanding disease mechanisms in glaucoma, myopia, dry eye, cornea and inherited retinal degeneration. This shared SD-OCT instrumentation will benefit 4 Major Users and 6 Minor Users. Collectively, the Major Users are Principle Investigators on 7 R01 awards from NEI, all of which involve animal models. Taken together the requested instrumentation will leverage 11 R01 grants. The requested instrumentation will augment the funded Aims of these R01s by enabling in vivo quantitation not currently feasible in our laboratories. These measurements include quantitation of tear film, corneal thickness and topography, anterior chamber angle, lens, axial length and the same OCT reflectivity layers of retina that are also the target of analysis in human retinal disease. The Bioptigen SD-OCT will complement the Imaging Core facility supported by 5P30EY019007-08 (Core Facilities for Vision Research), facilitate collaboration among members of the Columbia vision research community and importantly, will provide SD-OCT training for Ph.D. students supported by the Vision Sciences training grant (5T32EY013933-18).