Unwelcome Vessels in the Eye

What am I looking at?

This is an image of a CNV complex that developed after an injury to the retina of a rat. A protein called isolectin B4 (1) is labeled red, marking endothelial cells. The cytoskeleton protein F-actin (2) is labeled green. And the nuclei of all the cells (3) are labeled blue.

Biology in the background

Choroidal neovascularization is the growth of new blood vessels in the choroidal layer – a vascular membrane – under the retina. While it may seem as if more blood flow to an injured retina would be a good thing, the blood vessels that develop in such a situation are a tangled mass that not only doesn’t provide a useful flow of blood but can even interfere with the functioning of the retina.

A CNV complex generally develops after an injury to the eye or as a result of a disease like macular degeneration. The researchers who generated this image used fluorescent tags to study the development and formation of CNV complexes in rats to better understand how to prevent their formation in humans and treat them once they have formed.

In a rat, retinal endothelial cells can be about 60 micrometers long, or slightly smaller than the width of a human hair.

Technique

This image was created using confocal microscopy.