PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Aby Joseph
AU  - Colin J Chu
AU  - Guanping Feng
AU  - Kosha Dholakia
AU  - Jesse Schallek
TI  - Label-free imaging of immune cell dynamics in the living retina using adaptive optics
AID  - 10.1101/2020.07.07.191890
DP  - 2020 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 2020.07.07.191890
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/07/08/2020.07.07.191890.1.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/07/08/2020.07.07.191890.1.full
AB  - Our recent work characterized the movement of single blood cells within the retinal vasculature of healthy mice (Joseph et al. 2019) using adaptive optics ophthalmoscopy. Here we apply this technique to the context of acute inflammation and discover both infiltrating and tissue-resident immune cells to be visible without any labelling in the living retina using near - infrared light alone. Intravital imaging of immune cells can be negatively impacted by surgical manipulation, exogenous dyes, transgenic manipulation and phototoxicity. These confounds are now overcome, using phase contrast and time-lapse videography to reveal the dynamic behavior of myeloid cells as they interact, extravasate and survey the retina. Cellular motility and differential vascular responses can be measured noninvasively and in vivo across hours to months at the same retinal location, from initiation to the resolution of inflammation. As comparable systems are already available for clinical research, this approach could be readily translated to human application.Impact statement Immune cell motility and vascular response are imaged in vivo and label-free in the CNS for the first time, using high-resolution phase-contrast adaptive optics retinal imaging.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.