{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,30]],"date-time":"2026-07-30T14:23:43Z","timestamp":1785421423238,"version":"3.56.0"},"reference-count":25,"publisher":"Optica Publishing Group","issue":"9","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,8,26]],"date-time":"2025-08-26T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1756166400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1364\/OA_License_v2#VOR-OA"},{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,8,26]],"date-time":"2025-08-26T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1756166400000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/opg.optica.org\/policies\/opg-tdm-policy.json"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["opg.optica.org"],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Biomed. Opt. Express"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2025,9,1]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>\n                    Recent attention has been given to immune cells near the inner limiting membrane (ILM) of the retina due to their potential use as a biomarker or therapeutic target. Non-invasive phase contrast imaging via optical coherence tomography or non-confocal adaptive optics scanning light ophthalmoscopy has allowed investigations into cellular dynamics and morphology. The cells have been variously referred to as microglia, hyalocytes, or ILM macrophages, with no consensus yet reached as to their identity. Here, we employed AOSLO with an improved non-confocal detection scheme to investigate motile immune cells and their relation, if any, to nearby retinal vasculature. Image series were systematically acquired to observe cells over time (30-60 minutes) at different depth planes (9.2 \u00b5m separation), in 3 healthy human subjects, within 2\u00b0x2\u00b0 fields between 8\u00b0 and 14\u00b0 temporally and 0\u00b0 and 8\u00b0 superior from fixation. A total of 77 cell somas and their process tips were labelled, with a further 20 cells tracked with higher frequency to explore moment-to-moment variations. Cell somas were separated from the nearest blood vessel by 39.1\u2009\u00b1\u200917.3 \u00b5m (mean\u2009\u00b1\u2009standard deviation). The cells occupied an effective monolayer, averaging 25.0\u2009\u00b1\u200915.7 \u00b5m anterior to the nearest vessel and with no cell observed posterior to a vessel. Compared to cell distributions known from histology, our observations suggest that only a subset of resident immune cells is amenable to phase contrast imaging. Monte Carlo simulations were carried out to determine whether immune cells are located differently from random within their monolayer; we found that cells did not co-localize with the nearby vasculature (p\u2009&gt;\u20090.05), but did have a strong tendency to avoid each other (p \u223c 10\n                    <jats:sup>\u221212<\/jats:sup>\n                    ). We note, however, that cell processes (often rapidly extending and contracting) are often long enough to reach the closest vessels, averaging 34.8\u2009\u00b1\u200911.5 \u00b5m in length with a maximum observed extension of 101.9 \u00b5m. Finally, soma speeds averaged 0.52\u2009\u00b1\u20090.49 \u00b5m\/min when followed every 5 minutes, consistent with previous reports. A sub-analysis with data collected every 12-15 seconds demonstrated an almost eight-fold increase in measured speed (averaging 4.04\u2009\u00b1\u20091.47 \u00b5m\/min), reflecting the stop-start nature of cellular motility.\n                  <\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1364\/boe.572046","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,8,18]],"date-time":"2025-08-18T08:00:07Z","timestamp":1755504007000},"page":"3832","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1364\/crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["Distribution and dynamics of motile immune cells near the inner limiting membrane in the living human eye"],"prefix":"10.1364","volume":"16","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1414-7962","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"David","family":"Dierickx","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/01ej9dk98","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5144-3694","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Phillip","family":"Bedggood","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/01ej9dk98","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2997-4362","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Andrew","family":"Metha","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/01ej9dk98","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"285","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,8,26]]},"reference":[{"key":"boe-16-9-3832-R1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"203","DOI":"10.1186\/s12974-022-02562-3","volume":"19","author":"Rajesh","year":"2022","journal-title":"J. Neuroinflammation"},{"key":"boe-16-9-3832-R2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"100778","DOI":"10.1016\/j.preteyeres.2019.100778","volume":"74","author":"Murakami","year":"2020","journal-title":"Prog. Retinal Eye Res."},{"key":"boe-16-9-3832-R3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"48","DOI":"10.1167\/iovs.61.6.48","volume":"61","author":"Castanos","year":"2020","journal-title":"Invest. Ophthalmol. Visual Sci."},{"key":"boe-16-9-3832-R4","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"30661","DOI":"10.1073\/pnas.2010943117","volume":"117","author":"Hammer","year":"2020","journal-title":"Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A."},{"key":"boe-16-9-3832-R5","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1755","DOI":"10.1364\/BOE.449417","volume":"13","author":"Migacz","year":"2022","journal-title":"Biomed. Opt. Express"},{"key":"boe-16-9-3832-R6","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"840","DOI":"10.1364\/OL.382589","volume":"45","author":"Guevara-Torres","year":"2020","journal-title":"Opt. Lett."},{"key":"boe-16-9-3832-R7","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"473","DOI":"10.1364\/BOE.547734","volume":"16","author":"Bedggood","year":"2025","journal-title":"Biomed. Opt. Express"},{"key":"boe-16-9-3832-R8","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"2","DOI":"10.1167\/iovs.62.10.2","volume":"62","author":"Ong","year":"2021","journal-title":"Invest. Ophthalmol. Visual Sci."},{"key":"boe-16-9-3832-R9","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"12864","DOI":"10.1038\/s41598-022-17229-5","volume":"12","author":"Wang","year":"2022","journal-title":"Sci. Rep."},{"key":"boe-16-9-3832-R10","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"101836","DOI":"10.1016\/j.ajoc.2023.101836","volume":"30","author":"Ahsanuddin","year":"2023","journal-title":"Am. J. Ophthalmol. Case Rep."},{"key":"boe-16-9-3832-R11","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1117\/1.NPh.7.1.015013","volume":"7","author":"Kurokawa","year":"2020","journal-title":"Neurophotonics"},{"key":"boe-16-9-3832-R12","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"6098","DOI":"10.1364\/BOE.533451","volume":"15","author":"Brunner","year":"2024","journal-title":"Biomed Opt. Express"},{"key":"boe-16-9-3832-R13","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"12803","DOI":"10.1073\/pnas.1711734114","volume":"114","author":"Liu","year":"2017","journal-title":"Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci."},{"key":"boe-16-9-3832-R14","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"100475","DOI":"10.1016\/j.xops.2024.100475","volume":"4","author":"Rui","year":"2024","journal-title":"Ophthalmol. Sci."},{"key":"boe-16-9-3832-R15","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"117","DOI":"10.1364\/BOE.441808","volume":"13","author":"Gofas-Salas","year":"2022","journal-title":"Biomed Opt. Express"},{"key":"boe-16-9-3832-R16","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"987836","DOI":"10.3389\/fimmu.2022.987836","volume":"13","author":"Zeng","year":"2022","journal-title":"Front. Immunol."},{"key":"boe-16-9-3832-R17","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"e0174617","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pone.0174617","volume":"12","author":"Bedggood","year":"2017","journal-title":"PLoS One"},{"key":"boe-16-9-3832-R18","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"6277","DOI":"10.1364\/BOE.536553","volume":"15","author":"Bedggood","year":"2024","journal-title":"Biomed. Opt. Express"},{"key":"boe-16-9-3832-R19","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"676","DOI":"10.1038\/nmeth.2019","volume":"9","author":"Schindelin","year":"2012","journal-title":"Nat. Methods"},{"key":"boe-16-9-3832-R21","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"62","DOI":"10.1109\/TSMC.1979.4310076","volume":"9","author":"Otsu","year":"1979","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Syst., Man, Cybern."},{"key":"boe-16-9-3832-R22","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"100196","DOI":"10.1016\/j.xops.2022.100196","volume":"2","author":"Pinhas","year":"2022","journal-title":"Ophthalmology Science"},{"key":"boe-16-9-3832-R23","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"5289","DOI":"10.1038\/s41467-021-25590-8","volume":"12","author":"Bisht","year":"2021","journal-title":"Nat. Commun."},{"key":"boe-16-9-3832-R24","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"22671","DOI":"10.1038\/s41598-021-01820-3","volume":"11","author":"Endo","year":"2021","journal-title":"Sci. Rep."},{"key":"boe-16-9-3832-R25","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"45","DOI":"10.1146\/annurev-vision-091517-034425","volume":"4","author":"Silverman","year":"2018","journal-title":"Annu. Rev. Vis. Sci."},{"key":"boe-16-9-3832-R26","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"e2217795120","DOI":"10.1073\/pnas.2217795120","volume":"120","author":"Downie","year":"2023","journal-title":"Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci."}],"container-title":["Biomedical Optics Express"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/opg.optica.org\/viewmedia.cfm?URI=boe-16-9-3832&seq=0","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,8,26]],"date-time":"2025-08-26T16:31:45Z","timestamp":1756225905000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/opg.optica.org\/abstract.cfm?URI=boe-16-9-3832"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2025,8,26]]},"references-count":25,"journal-issue":{"issue":"9","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025]]},"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2025]]}},"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1364\/boe.572046","relation":{},"ISSN":["2156-7085","2156-7085"],"issn-type":[{"value":"2156-7085","type":"print"},{"value":"2156-7085","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2025,8,26]]},"assertion":[{"value":"Optica Publishing Group","name":"publisher","label":"This article is maintained by"},{"value":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1364\/BOE.572046","name":"articlelink","label":"Crossref DOI link to publisher maintained version"},{"value":"research-article","name":"content_type","label":"Article type"},{"value":"Screened by Similarity Check","name":"cross_check","label":"Similarity check"},{"value":"Yes","order":0,"name":"peer_reviewed","label":"Peer reviewed","group":{"name":"peer_review","label":"Peer review"}},{"value":"Single blind","order":1,"name":"review_process","label":"Review process","group":{"name":"peer_review","label":"Peer review"}},{"value":"30 June 2025","order":0,"name":"received","label":"Received","group":{"name":"publication_history","label":"Publication History"}},{"value":"11 August 2025","order":1,"name":"accepted","label":"Accepted","group":{"name":"publication_history","label":"Publication History"}},{"value":"26 August 2025","order":2,"name":"published","label":"Published","group":{"name":"publication_history","label":"Publication History"}},{"value":"\u00a9 2025 Optica Publishing Group under the terms of the Optica Open Access Publishing Agreement","name":"copyright","label":"Copyright"}]}}