ARVO 2025: In vivo imaging of RPE metabolic function in AMD

At ARVO 2025, in Salt Lake City, Utah, Xiaolin Wang, MS, talked about her presentation on in vivo imaging of retinal pigment epithelium metabolic function in AMD

Video Transcript:

Editor's note: The below transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.

Xiaolin Wang, MS:

Hello. My name is Xaiolin Wang. I'm a senior research associate from Doheny Eye Institute. In parts of the physiology of wet AMD, we know RPE is a crucial role. Being able to assess RPE function has been challenging clinically. RPE health is estimated by fundus autofluorescence. Since fundus autofluorescence is intensity based imaging is can only provide qualitative assessment. AOFLIO is a new image modality. It can give a fluorescence lifetime of the fluorophore in the retina or RPE cells. However, AOFLIO doesn't have cellular level resolution due to the eyes optical defects. So when we have imaging for the whole retinas will be excited. So we don't know the photons come from which retina layers and which cells, but in the adaptive optics, we can correct the aberration of the imaging light caused by the eyes optical defects, so we can assure AOFLIO forms the image on the cellular layer allows us to merit RP function structures simultaneously. At Doheny Eye Institute, we are build up a research AOFLIO instrument, working with leading scientist at Donheny we studied neovascular AMD in the living patient.

In my presentation, I have demonstrated the RPE fluorescence lifetime structure in different AMD lesions, including drusen SD atrophy area and ABR. Our study revealed that on drusen and SD area, the RP conflagrations, fluorescence lifetime is longer than that in remarkable area in the AMD eyes, and moreover, the fluorescence in a non-remarkable area in the AMD eyes is longer than that in the normal eyes. These findings may help us detect early pathological change in AMD, even before the structure, the structure damages, is clinically visible. As the atrophy area abetalipoproteinemia or ABL. AOFLIO shows that the fine characterization of the transition from the non lesion area to lesion. So this ability help us better understanding the disease impact, or may more accurately define the lesion borders in the clinical trials. AOFLIO can provide the characterization of AMD impact on the structure and function of the retina and RP cells at the cellular level. This provides insight into the pathophysiology of AMD, previous unatttainable using other imaging techniques.