Ultrastructural imaging reveals mechanisms of sight loss

New research from the Faculty of Medicine has used ultrastructural imaging to help better understand the mechanisms of sight loss.

In a study published in Neural Regeneration Research, Dr Arjuna Ratnayaka and Dr Ellie Keeling reconstructed outer retinal tissues in 3D and demonstrated how mitochondria in healthy retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) cells were organised.

Damaged mitochondria play an important but a poorly understood role in RPE death, which drives sight-loss. 

The findings provide a benchmark for comparing diseased retinal tissues from patients with blinding diseases such as age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and other retinopathies.     

Their work was carried out at the Southampton Biomedical Imaging Unit.