Label free Atomic Force Microscope screening
Diabetic retinopathy and scar tissue form on the eye in diabetics causing blindness or visual impairment. This is handled different ways by the doctors. They either use a laser to ablate the vascularization and the scar tissue or go inside the eye and peel off the inner limiting membrane and scar tissue. However, it is difficult to differentiate the retinal cells from the outer membrane. The only technology to separate is to use a dye – but there are no dyes approved in the US.
Atomic Force microscopy (AFM) modified with bimodal dual AC mode microscopy has been used by Ivanisevic lab at the North Carolina State to determine the surface structure of the retina. Thus this label free microscopy technique is very useful for determining the structure of the cells on the surface based on their structure and in the absence of any fluorescent or other labeling modalities. This will be used for testing of new dyes that could be used for determining retinal layer from the other layers.
Though AFM is slow and tedious, the resolution is very high and the supplemental information about the surface forces will be important to develop new molecules for identification of retina
