High performance microscopy for non-invasive conjunctival goblet cell examination

Date:
April 6, 2022
Source:
Pohang University of Science & Technology (POSTECH)
Summary:
Scientists have developed a high-speed extended depth-of-field
(DOF) microscopy for non-invasive conjunctival goblet cell (CGC)
examination.



FULL STORY ========================================================================== Conjunctival goblet cells (CGCs) are specialized epithelial cells
secreting mucins to form the mucus layer of tear film. The mucus
layer spreads the tear film on the ocular surface for protection. The dysfunction and death of CGCs causes tear film instability and is
associated with various ocular surface diseases including the dry eye
disease (DED). Because DED is a multifactorial disease with multiple
causes, it is important to find the causes and disease status. Therefore,
CGC examination is important for the precise diagnosis and effective
treatment of ocular surface diseases; however, CGC examination has not
been possible until now due to lack of non-invasive devices.


==========================================================================
A POSTECH research team led by Professor Ki Hean Kim and Ph.D. candidates Jungbin Lee and Seonghan Kim (Department of Mechanical Engineering), in collaboration with professors Hong Kyun Kim and Byeong Jae Son (Department
of Ophthalmology) of Kyungpook National University and Professor Chang
Ho Yoon (Department of Ophthalmology) of Seoul National University,
has developed a high-performance microscopy system for non-invasive
CGC examination in patients. Recognized for technical advancement and potentials, this research has recently been published in IEEE Transactions
on Medical Imaging, an international journal on medical imaging.

Earlier in 2019, the research team had discovered for the first time
that moxifloxacin, an FDA-approved ophthalmic antibiotic, stains CGCs,
and demonstrated high-contrast CGC imaging by using moxifloxacin as a
cell labeling agent. However, CGC imaging in humans was impossible due
to various limitations of conventional microscopy techniques such as
shallow depth-of-fields (DOFs) and slow imaging speeds.

To overcome these limitations, the research team developed a high-speed extended DOF microscopy which had a 1 mm DOF (25x DOF extension)
and 10 frames per second imaging speed. A deformable mirror was used
in the system to axially sweep the imaging plane and to capture CGCs
on the arbitrary tilted conjunctiva in single frames. The acquired
images contained both in-focus and out-of-focus information, and the deconvolution was used to filter the in-focus information only.

Professor Ki Hean Kim of POSTECH explained, "The newly developed imaging
system can obtain high-resolution in-focus images of CGCs in live animal
models and is also applicable to humans." He added, "Going forward, we
will develop a device for imaging patients and then run clinical trials
to test the feasibility of non-invasive CGC examination in the diagnosis
and treatment of ocular surface diseases." This study was conducted
with the support from the Samsung Research Funding & Incubation Center
(Project number SRFC-IT2101-05).


========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by Pohang_University_of_Science_&_Technology_(POSTECH).

Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Jungbin Lee, Seonghan Kim, Jeongho Kim, Byeong Jae Son, Chang
Ho Yoon,
Hong Kyun Kim, Ki Hean Kim. Moxifloxacin-Based Extended
Depth-of-Field Fluorescence Microscopy for Real-Time Conjunctival
Goblet Cell Examination. IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging,
2022; 1 DOI: 10.1109/ TMI.2022.3151944 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/04/220406101729.htm

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