This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. Primary support for the subproject and the subproject's principal investigator may have been provided by other sources, including other NIH sources. The Total Cost listed for the subproject likely represents the estimated amount of Center infrastructure utilized by the subproject, not direct funding provided by the NCRR grant to the subproject or subproject staff. Alzheimer?s disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease with progressive loss of brain cells as well as learning and memory performance in eldly population. Studies have found that one of the pathological hallmarks for this disease is accumulation of the senile plaques, a pathological stains consisting of junk proteins, in the brain tissues. However, this type of plaques can now only be detected uisng autopsied tissues. Interestingly, we recently found that Alzheimer's-related senile plaques are also present in the retinas of transgenic mice with AD. The objective of this pilot study is to develop an imaging technique using the modified optical coherance tomography (mOCT) to detect senile plaques in the retinas in live mice with AD. Accordingly, a transgenic AD mouse will be given a small amout of non-toxic fluorescent dye or a dye-labelled antibody to stain the plaques prior to imaging. Fluorescent retinal fundus images will be then obtained using mOCT from the mouse under anesthesia. Once the imaging procedure is completed, both brains and eyes of the mice will be colleted for pathological analysis following euthansia. At last, the information collected from the retinal images will be correlated with these pathological observations. Anticipated results from proposed studies would help us to develop a new imaging technique to detect Alzheimer's plaques through eyes, which will provide a powerful tool for early diagnosis of AD that can be readily translated to the clinical setting
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