Evidence of flicker-induced functional hyperaemia in the smallest vessels of the human retinal blood supply

A Duan; PA Bedggood; BV Bui; AB Metha

Journal article

Evidence of flicker-induced functional hyperaemia in the smallest vessels of the human retinal blood supply

A Duan, PA Bedggood, BV Bui, AB Metha

Plos One | PUBLIC LIBRARY SCIENCE | Published : 2016

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0162621

Download PDF

Abstract

Regional changes in blood flow are initiated within neural tissue to help fuel local differences in neural activity. Classically, this response was thought to arise only in larger arterioles and venules. However, recently, it has been proposed that a) the smallest vessels of the circulation make a comparable contribution, and b) the response should be localised intermittently along such vessels, due to the known distribution of contractile mural cells. To assess these hypotheses in human neural tissue in vivo, we imaged the retinal microvasculature (diameters 3-28 μm) non-invasively, using adaptive optics, before and after delivery of focal (360 μm) patches of flickering visible light. Our r..

View full abstract

University of Melbourne Researchers

Phillip Bedggood Author

Bang Bui Author

Andrew Metha Author

Related Projects (3)

In vivo photoreceptor and retinal capillary flow imaging to study neurovascular coupling in human diabetes, thalassemia, optic neuritis, benign intracranial hypertension and progressive retinal dystrophies.

Functional imaging with cellular resolution in the living eye

Adaptive optics allows the visualisation of individual cells and capillaries in the living human eye. This project will use adaptive optics ..

Functional imaging of colour pathways in the living eye

In order to repair or regenerate a diseased eye, we require knowledge of the normal pattern or nerve cell connections, and knowing how biolo..

Grants

Awarded by Australian Research Council

Funding Acknowledgements

This research was supported by: an Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DE120101931); an ARC Future Fellowship Award (FT130100388); an ARC Discovery Project Grant (DP0984649), an Australian Postgraduate Award from the Australian Government; an A.E. Rowden White Foundation benevolent bequest, and a Melbourne Neuroscience Institute (MNI) Interdisciplinary Seed Fund award from the University of Melbourne.