Blood Shot

Like all of our healthy tissues, our eyes are riddled with blood vessels – vascular networks which supply valuable chemicals to our peepers. But a condition called iris neovascularisation (INV) can cause vessel overgrowth, leading to rubeosis iridis and a type of glaucoma. Here two techniques investigate a promising treatment for INV in the eye of a 79-year old man – injections which aim to control a protein called VEGF inside eye cells, taming blood vessel growth. On the top, patterns of blood flow around the iris (seen in red on the cross-section on the right) are used to map out the blood vessel network using a computer algorithm (left). Underneath, the VEGF treatment (bottom) has clearly reduced the INV. Further developments may make these techniques more sensitive, allowing ophthalmologists to detect and treat eye problems earlier in life.

Written by John Ankers

John Ankers

Writer

A former researcher in systems biology, John is now an online biology tutor and professional coach supporting the wellbeing of scientists and NHS professionals. He's writing, too, of course.

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• Image adapted from work by Daiki Shiozaki and colleagues
• Department of Ophthalmology, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine, Suita, Japan
• Image originally published under a Creative Commons Licence (BY 4.0)
• Published in Scientific Reports, July 2019