ArticleInvestigative ophthalmology & visual science2014
Quantitative autofluorescence and cell density maps of the human retinal pigment epithelium.
Article in Investigative ophthalmology & visual science, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 148 papers.
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Who cites it
148 citing papers in PubMed, 213 citations in OpenAlex.
- Influence of lens opacities and cataract severity on quantitative fundus autofluorescence as a secondary outcome of a randomized clinical trial.Scientific reports · 2021Trial
- A Qualitative and Quantitative Assessment of Fundus Autofluorescence Patterns in Patients With Choroideremia.Investigative ophthalmology & visual science · 2016Trial
- Impaired Rod-Mediated Vision is the Functional Hallmark of Ageing and Early and Intermediate Age-Related Macular Degeneration.Ophthalmic & physiological optics : the journal of the British College of Ophthalmic Opticians (Optometrists) · 2026Review
- An Integrated Multi-omics Single Cell Atlas of the Human RPE and Choroid.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Toward Organelle Motility as a Functional Biomarker of Retinal Pigment Epithelium Health.Translational vision science & technology · 2026Article
- Characterization of retinal pigment epithelium layer in healthy and diseased retinas with high-resolution adaptive optics transscleral flood illumination imaging.Acta ophthalmologica · 2026Article
- Validation of a Rule-Based Automated Method for RPE Cell Detection Using Adaptive Optics Transscleral Flood Illumination.Translational vision science & technology · 2026Article
- Evaluating the Influence of the Lens Autofluorescence on Adaptive Optics Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging Ophthalmoscopy.Translational vision science & technology · 2026Article
- The Science of Rod-Mediated Dark Adaptation, an Outcome Measure for Age-Related Macular Degeneration: The 2025 Proctor Medal Lecture.Investigative ophthalmology & visual science · 2026Article
- Topographic Progression of Geographic Atrophy and Visual Acuity in Nonexudative Age-Related Macular Degeneration.Korean journal of ophthalmology : KJO · 2026Article
- Integrative Landscape of Dry AMD Pathogenesis, Models, and Emerging Therapeutic Strategies.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Review
- In-Vivo Characterization of Healthy Retinal Pigment Epithelium and Photoreceptor Cells from AO-(T)FI Imaging.Vision (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Super-Resolution Near-Infrared Autofluorescence Microscopy Depicts Melanin Containing Organelles of the Retinal Pigment Epithelium in Human Donor Eyes.Investigative ophthalmology & visual science · 2025Article
- Single-cell transcriptome and surfaceome profiling of the adult human retinal pigment epithelium.Stem cell reports · 2025Article
- Bisretinoid lipofuscin, fundus autofluorescence and retinal disease.Progress in retinal and eye research · 2025Review
- Features that distinguish age-related macular degeneration from aging.Experimental eye research · 2025Review
- Artificial intelligence assisted clinical fluorescence imaging achieves in vivo cellular resolution comparable to adaptive optics ophthalmoscopy.Communications medicine · 2025Article
- Ferroptosis: An Energetic Villain of Age-Related Macular Degeneration.Biomedicines · 2025Review
- Quantitative autofluorescence is increased in clinically unaffected fellow eyes from patients with posterior uveitis.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Identifying retinal pigment epithelium cells in adaptive optics-optical coherence tomography images with partial annotations and superhuman accuracy.Biomedical optics express · 2024Article
88 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
11 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
purposeLipofuscin (LF) accumulation within RPE cells is considered pathogenic in AMD. To test whether LF contributes to RPE cell loss in aging and to provide a cellular basis for fundus autofluorescence (AF) we created maps of human RPE cell number and histologic AF.
methodsRetinal pigment epithelium-Bruch's membrane flat mounts were prepared from 20 donor eyes (10 ≤ 51 and 10 > 80 years; postmortem: ≤4.2 hours; no retinal pathologies), preserving foveal position. Phalloidin-binding RPE cytoskeleton and LF-AF (488-nm excitation) were imaged at up to 90 predefined positions. Maps were assembled from 83,330 cells in 1470 locations. From Voronoi regions representing each cell, the number of neighbors, cell area, and total AF intensity normalized to an AF standard was determined.
resultsHighly variable between individuals, RPE-AF increases significantly with age. A perifoveal ring of high AF mirrors rod photoreceptor topography and fundus-AF. Retinal pigment epithelium cell density peaks at the fovea, independent of age, yet no net RPE cell loss is detectable. The RPE monolayer undergoes considerable lifelong re-modeling. The relationship of cell size and AF, a surrogate for LF concentration, is orderly and linear in both groups. Autofluorescence topography differs distinctly from the topography of age-related rod loss.
conclusionsDigital maps of quantitative AF, cell density, and packing geometry provide metrics for cellular-resolution clinical imaging and model systems. The uncoupling of RPE LF content, cell number, and photoreceptor topography in aging challenges LF's role in AMD.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.