Semi-automated vitality analysis of human trabecular meshwork

Abstract

Glaucoma is associated with cell loss in the trabecular meshwork of the eye. Multiphoton microscopy aided by intravital dye labeling permits visualization of live and dead cells within the intact trabecular meshwork. We have developed a semi-automated method to quantify cellular viability within the human trabecular meshwork based on three-dimensional software-assisted tissue reconstruction and isosurface modeling. Live cellularity counts by the semi-automated method were obtained quickly and agreed with that of manual counting in the same group of tissues (1.6% group difference; n = 13), with counts in individual tissues showing a mean coefficient of variation of 10%.