Miguel Seabra recently published an article with Rita Flores from CHULC - Centro Hospitalar Lisboa Central, among others, in the journal Retina - The journal of Retinal and Vitrius Disease entitled "A correlation study between drusen morphology and fundus autofluorescence" (full article here).
In brief, Sandra Tenreiro, from Seabra Lab, talks about this colaborative article:
What discoveries led you to the research described in your publication?
Use of autofluorescence in the retinal imaging and its relationship with the morphology of the deposits of of lipids and proteins under the retina, called drusen.
What were you trying to understand and what is the main discovery of this work?
We want to understand the possible relation between drusen and lipofucsin in AMD pathology.
Lipofucsin is a lipid containing pigment that accumulates in the cytoplasm of cells during aging.
Why is this important?
This discoveries are important to fully understand pathophysiology of AMD.
What questions remain to be asked?
We found some correlation (weak or moderate) but some other factors are surely involved.
Can you identify a possible outcome of this work?
Statistically significant correlation between drusen autofluorescence and homogeneity, hyperreflective foci, Elipsoid zone integrity and choroidal hypertransmission. These parameters will allow a better characterization and stratification of AMD patients.
This work was performed with various collaborations. Can you explain the benefit of these, or what could not been possible without the collaborative efforts?
These work resulted from an important collaboration between scientists of CEDOC, Nova Health, Nova IMS. The integrated work was essential to the success of this research.
Rita Flores and Miguel Seabra
Find out more about Seabra Lab in the the website of the group.