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Druse-Induced Morphology Evolution in Retinal Pigment Epithelium

K. Mazzitello,Q. Zhang,M. Chrenek,F. Family,H. Grossniklaus,J. Nickerson,Y. Jiang

Published 2016 in arXiv: Tissues and Organs

ABSTRACT

The retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) is a key site of pathogenesis for many retina diseases. The formation of drusen in the retina is characteristic of retinal degeneration. We investigate morphological changes in the RPE in the presence of soft drusen using an integrated experimental and modeling approach. We collect RPE flat mount images from donated human eyes and develop 1) statistical tools to quantify the images and 2) a cell-based model to simulate the morphology evolution. We compare three different mechanisms of RPE repair evolution, cell apoptosis, cell fusion, and expansion, and Simulations of our RPE morphogenesis model quantitatively reproduce deformations of human RPE morphology due to drusen, suggesting that a purse-string mechanism is sufficient to explain how RPE heals cell loss caused by drusen-damage. We found that drusen beneath tissue promote cell death in a number that far exceeds the cell numbers covering the drusen. Tissue deformations are studied using area distributions, Voronoi domains and a texture tensor.

PUBLICATION RECORD

  • Publication year

    2016

  • Venue

    arXiv: Tissues and Organs

  • Publication date

    2016-09-15

  • Fields of study

    Biology, Medicine, Physics

  • Identifiers
    arXiv 1609.04496
  • External record

    Open on Semantic Scholar

  • Source metadata

    Semantic Scholar

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