Functional OCT angiography reveals early physiological dysfunction of hyaloid vasculature in developing mouse eye

Hyaloid vascular system (HVS) is a transient capillary network nourishing developing eye. Better study of the HVS regression correlated with eye development is essential for in-depth understanding of the nature of vision system. In this study, we demonstrate the feasibility of longitudinal optical coherence tomography (OCT) and OCT angiography (OCTA) monitoring of the HVS in C57BL/6J mice. OCT enables morphological monitoring of the HVS regression, and OCTA allows physiological assessment of the HVS involution correlated with eye development. Functional OCTA reveals early physiological dysfunction before morphological regression of the hyaloid vasculature in developing mouse eye. We anticipate that noninvasive, simultaneous OCT/OCTA observation of morphological regression and physiological degradation in normal and diseased animal models will be valuable to unravel the complex mechanisms of the HVS regression correlated with normal eye development and abnormal persistent hyaloid conditions.

Impact statement: Hyaloid vascular system (HVS) is known to have an essential role in the eye development. However, established knowledge of the HVS largely relies on end-point studies with biochemically fixed tissues, lacking a full description of the natural dynamics of the HVS correlated with eye development. An imaging methodology for noninvasive, longitudinal, and high-resolution monitoring of the HVS is important not only for better understanding of the nature of the vision system and is also valuable for better study of abnormal eye conditions. Here, we report the feasibility of in vivo optical coherence tomography (OCT) and OCT angiography (OCTA) imaging of the HVS regression in developing mouse eye. OCT enables morphological imaging of the HVS structure, and OCTA allows functional assessment of the HVS physiology correlated with eye development.