Adult newts are amazing animals that are able to regenerate many parts of their body. Lens regeneration is one of the most significant among all other forms of regeneration in the newt since the lens is able to repeatedly regenerate a perfectly functional lens regardless of injury, frequency of lens removal, or newt’s age. Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) is an emerging powerful diagnostic tool for ophthalmology in human ocular diseases. OCT has recently been adopted for animal research. OCT enables in-vivo, non-invasive imaging that does not require the animal to be sacrificed in order to collect data. Therefore, OCT represents an ideal analytical platform for live imaging of newts undergoing lens regeneration. Previous studies using traditional methods, such as histology, have demonstrated newt lens regeneration requires approximately 80 days to complete. Therefore, our experimental approach was designed to capture the morphological changes that occur during lens regeneration in the entirety of the 80 days regenerating window. Since OCT has never before been used in this capacity, we also performed side by side comparisons with the gold standard of histology based detection accordingly to verify the accuracy of OCT-based imaging. Our results show that OCT imaging is capable of capturing the dynamic changes in cellular events associated with lens regeneration. This represents the first time a live imaging technique has been successfully implemented in the field of newt lens regeneration. Surprisingly, we have also discovered that OCT is able to detect the zonular fibers that connect to the lens which had not previously been observed using traditional methods. OCT has demonstrated its feasibility on live imaging of lens regeneration, while also having the potential of live fluorescent imaging. Personally, the results obtained have reinforced the significance of technology incorporation in scientific research and has inspired me to incorporate more technology in my future career in scientific research.
Author: Junfan Chen
Advisors: Dr. Katia Del Rio-Tsonis, Department of Biology
Georgios Tsissios, Department of Biology