Maintaining and Assessing Various Tissue and Cell Types of the Eye Using a Novel Pumpless Fluidics System

The most common devices used for measuring oxygen consumption don't support the simultaneous collection of outflow fractions. It's critical to also assay outflow to correlate metabolism with tissue function. Technology's measuring both can better assess cellular mechanisms mediating tissue function and disease.

The key challenge in measuring oxygen consumption and live tissue is delivering adequate oxygen to maintain tissue viability and function. This is best accomplished with flow systems. Utilizing gas pressure instead of standard peristaltic pumps greatly simplifies the procedure and also eliminates bubble formation.

The utility of a metabolic measurement is only as good as its ability to quantify and reproduce the results. Our protocol leverages the combination of precisely controlled flow rate with stable lifetime detection of dissolved oxygen in both inflow and outflow. This approach can reproducibly resolve changes in oxygen consumption of even just a few percent.

The biochemical processes mediating retinal function are the result of the metabolic interplay between various tissue of the eye. The ability of our flow system to assess multiple tissue types with diverse geometries facilitates the study of the unique intrinsic properties of each cell type and their coordinated functions. Many diseases afflicting the eye are caused by impaired metabolic pathways and signaling.

We are focusing on measuring the oxygen consumption and the release of metabolic byproducts by eye tissues in order to characterize, understand and treat the development of retinal diseases and degeneration.