3D OCT Images of Murine Uveitis

Images were obtained from the eyes of anaesthetised mice using the Micron IV retinal imaging microscope. Spectral domain optical coherence tomography (OCT) images were obtained as 512 serial B-scans of a volume of tissue centred on the optic nerve head. Prior to imaging the Micron IV was fully calibrated according to the manufacturer’s protocol. Images (512x1024 pixels) with a bit depth of 16 were acquired using PackBits lossless compression. Experimental autoimmune uveitis (EAU) was induced in all animals by the transfer of disease causing CD4+ T lymphocytes specific for the retinal binding protein-3 (also known as IRBP) peptide 639-643 (EAHYARPEIAQRARA), (cf. Boldison et al. (2015)). Cells were transferred on day 0 (D0) after baseline imaging. Selected animals were imaged at subsequent time points (days 2, 6/7, 14) after cell transfer. In this model, disease characterised by an influx of cells into the eye and alteration in the retinal morphology, is clinically silent at day 2 and reaches a peak between day 6 and 14. The scans from each volume are recorded in a single folder whose name indicates the experiment, day of acquisition and individual animal. For example ‘TX12_D0_A1L’ is a scan of the left eye of mouse A1 obtained on day 0 of experiment Tx12. All experiments involving animals were conducted under licence from the United Kingdom Home Office and were approved by the University of Bristol Ethical Review Group. The studies also complied with the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) Statement for the Use of Animals in Ophthalmic and Visual Research.