{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,12]],"date-time":"2026-02-12T11:00:58Z","timestamp":1770894058777,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":55,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"4","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,11,1]],"date-time":"2025-11-01T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1761955200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Vision"],"abstract":"<jats:p>We provide an automated characterization of human retinal cells, i.e., RPE\u2019s based on the non-invasive AO-TFI retinal imaging and PR\u2019s based on the non-invasive AO-FI retinal imaging on a large-scale study involving 171 confirmed healthy eyes from 104 participants of 23 to 80 years old. Comprehensive standard checkups based on SD-OCT and Fondus imaging modalities were carried out by Ophthalmologists from the Luzerner Kantonsspital (LUKS) to confirm the absence of retinal pathologies. AO imaging imaging was performed using the Cellularis\u00ae device and each eye was imaged at various retinal eccentricities. The images were automatically segmented using a dedicated software and RPE and PR cells were identified and morphometric characterizations, such as cell density and area were computed. The results were stratified based on various criteria, such as age, retinal eccentricity, visual acuity, etc. The automatic segmentation was validated independently on a held-out set by five trained medical students not involved in this study. We plotted cell density variations as a function of eccentricity from the fovea along both nasal and temporal directions. For RPE cells, no consistent trend in density was observed between 0\u00b0 to 9\u00b0 eccentricity, contrasting with established histological literature demonstrating foveal density peaks. In contrast, PR cell density showed a clear decrease from 2.5\u00b0 to 9\u00b0. RPE cell density declined linearly with age, whereas no age-related pattern was detected for PR cell density. On average, RPE cell density was found to be \u22486313 cells\/mm2 (\u00b1\u03c3=757), while the average PR cell density was calculated as \u224810,207 cells\/mm2 (\u00b1\u03c3=1273).<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/vision9040091","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,11,3]],"date-time":"2025-11-03T19:30:27Z","timestamp":1762198227000},"page":"91","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["In-Vivo Characterization of Healthy Retinal Pigment Epithelium and Photoreceptor Cells from AO-(T)FI Imaging"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"9","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-3768-6408","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Sohrab","family":"Ferdowsi","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"EarlySight SA, 1202 Geneva, Switzerland"},{"name":"Department of Radiology and Medical Informatics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva, 1202 Geneva, Switzerland"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9336-8941","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Leila Sara","family":"Eppenberger","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Eye Clinic, Cantonal Hospital of Lucerne, 6000 Lucerne, Switzerland"},{"name":"Department of Ophthalmology, Inselspital, University Hospital, 3010 Bern, Switzerland"},{"name":"Singapore Eye Research Institute, Singapore 169856, Singapore"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Safa","family":"Mohanna","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Eye Clinic, Cantonal Hospital of Lucerne, 6000 Lucerne, Switzerland"},{"name":"Eye Clinic, Cantonal Hospital of Winterthur, 8400 Winterthur, Switzerland"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Oliver","family":"Pf\u00e4ffli","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Eye Clinic, Cantonal Hospital of Lucerne, 6000 Lucerne, Switzerland"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Christoph","family":"Amstutz","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Eye Clinic, Cantonal Hospital of Lucerne, 6000 Lucerne, Switzerland"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9868-154X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Lucas M.","family":"Bachmann","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Medignition A.G., 8004 Zurich, Switzerland"},{"name":"Epidemiology, Biostatistics & Prevention Institute (EBPI), University of Zurich, 8001 Zurich, Switzerland"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-0135-2468","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Michael A.","family":"Thiel","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Eye Clinic, Cantonal Hospital of Lucerne, 6000 Lucerne, Switzerland"},{"name":"Faculty of Health Sciences and Medicine, University of Lucerne, 6005 Lucerne, Switzerland"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Martin K.","family":"Schmid","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Eye Clinic, Cantonal Hospital of Lucerne, 6000 Lucerne, Switzerland"},{"name":"Faculty of Health Sciences and Medicine, University of Lucerne, 6005 Lucerne, Switzerland"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,11,1]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1710","DOI":"10.1016\/j.fmre.2023.08.011","article-title":"The retinal pigment epithelium: Functions and roles in ocular diseases","volume":"4","author":"Wang","year":"2023","journal-title":"Fundam. 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