{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,21]],"date-time":"2026-08-21T09:23:41Z","timestamp":1787304221235,"version":"build-2736575974"},"reference-count":41,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"16","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,21]],"date-time":"2026-08-21T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1787270400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Vice-Chancellor\u2019s International Scholarships for Research Excellence, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK"},{"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/03kk7td41","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100007155","name":"Medical Research Council","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["G0800547"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["G0800547"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100007155","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"award":["G0800547"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["G0800547"]}],"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/03x94j517","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"name":"Tweedie Bequest, University Hospital of Wales"},{"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/04fgpet95","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Diagnostics"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Background\/Objectives: Retinal imaging has considerable potential for monitoring Alzheimer\u2019s disease (AD) neurodegeneration, as retinal ganglion cell dendritic atrophy within the inner plexiform layer (IPL) is an early event. We tested whether quantitative optical coherence tomography (OCT) speckle texture analysis combined with supervised machine learning could discriminate AD-related IPL alterations without exogenous contrast agents in a mouse model. Methods: Retinal explants from triple-transgenic AD mice (n = 7, aged 12 months) and C57BL\/6 controls (n = 3, aged 15 months) were imaged ex vivo using a custom 1040 nm spectral-domain OCT system. Five grey-level co-occurrence matrix (GLCM) features were extracted from IPL volumes of interest (VOIs) and classified using a linear support vector machine (SVM). Results: AD and control IPL textures formed two completely separable clusters in a two-dimensional feature space defined by contrast and entropy (0\u00b0), achieving 100% VOI-level classification accuracy (95% CI: 96.4\u2013100%). However, given the small sample size, VOI-level rather than animal-level validation, lack of histological confirmation, non-interleaved image acquisition, and differences in age\/strain between groups, these results represent exploratory dataset separability rather than a validated diagnostic test. Conclusions: These findings demonstrate the feasibility of the ligand-free, texture-based OCT discrimination of IPL alterations, indicating a strong underlying optical signal. Adequately powered, in vivo longitudinal studies with matched controls, interleaved acquisition, animal-level cross-validation, and histological validation are required before any clinical translation.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/diagnostics16162672","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,21]],"date-time":"2026-08-21T08:14:01Z","timestamp":1787300041000},"page":"2672","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["The Machine Learning Classification of Retinal Ganglion Cell Dendritic Texture in a 3xTg-Alzheimer\u2019s Disease Mouse Model"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"16","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2112-4208","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Mukhit","family":"Kulmaganbetov","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Optometry and Vision Sciences, Cardiff University, Cardiff CF24 4HQ, UK"},{"name":"Department of Molecular Biology and Medical Genetics, Asfendiyarov Kazakh National Medical University, Almaty 050000, Kazakhstan"},{"name":"Centre for Eye and Vision Research, Hong Kong SAR, China"},{"name":"Centre for Sanitary and Epidemiological Expertise, Medical Centre of the Presidential Administration of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Astana 010000, Kazakhstan"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-7770-8427","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Saken","family":"Khaidarov","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Molecular Biology and Medical Genetics, Asfendiyarov Kazakh National Medical University, Almaty 050000, Kazakhstan"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2557-2887","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ryan","family":"Bevan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Optometry and Vision Sciences, Cardiff University, Cardiff CF24 4HQ, UK"},{"name":"UK Dementia Research Institute at Cardiff, Cardiff University, Cardiff CF24 4HQ, UK"},{"name":"Systems Immunity Research Institute, Cardiff University, Cardiff CF24 4HQ, UK"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"James E.","family":"Morgan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Optometry and Vision Sciences, Cardiff University, Cardiff CF24 4HQ, UK"},{"name":"University Hospital of Wales, Heath Park, Cardiff CF14 4XW, UK"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,21]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"102481","DOI":"10.1016\/j.arr.2024.102481","article-title":"Pathogenesis, diagnostics, and therapeutics for Alzheimer\u2019s disease: Breaking the memory barrier","volume":"101","author":"Kamatham","year":"2024","journal-title":"Ageing Res. 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