Optoretinography reveals rapid rod photoreceptor movement upon rhodopsin activation

Huakun Li; Connor E. Weiss; Vimal Prabhu Pandiyan; Davide Nanni; Teng Liu; Pei Wen Kung; Bingyao Tan; Veluchamy Amutha Barathi; Leopold Schmetterer; Ramkumar Sabesan; Tong Ling

doi:10.1038/s41377-025-02149-6

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Optoretinography reveals rapid rod photoreceptor movement upon rhodopsin activation

Original Articles

- Optoretinography reveals rapid rod photoreceptor movement upon rhodopsin activation
- Optoretinography reveals rapid rod photoreceptor movement upon rhodopsin activation
- Light: Science & Applications 2026年15卷第2期页码：620-633
- Affiliations：
  
  1.School of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore
  2.Department of Ophthalmology, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, WA, USA
  3.Graduate Program in Neuroscience, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
  4.Roger and Angie Karalis Johnson Retina Center, Seattle, WA, USA
  5.Department of Bioengineering, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
  6.Singapore Eye Research Institute, Singapore National Eye Centre, Singapore, Singapore
  7.SERI-NTU Advanced Ocular Engineering (STANCE) Program, Singapore, Singapore
  8.Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences Academic Clinical Program (EYE ACP), Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School, Singapore, Singapore
  9.Department of Ophthalmology, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore and National University Health System, Singapore, Singapore
  10.AIER hospital group, Changsha, China
  11.Department of Clinical Pharmacology, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
  12.Center for Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
  13.Rothschild Foundation Hospital, Paris, France
  14.School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore
- Author bio：
  
  Ramkumar Sabesan (rsabesan@uw.edu)
  Tong Ling (tong.ling@ntu.edu.sg)
- Funds：
- DOI：10.1038/s41377-025-02149-6
  中图分类号：
- 收稿：2025-05-28，
  
  修回：2025-11-13，
  
  录用：2025-11-27，
  
  网络首发：2026-01-07，
  
  纸质出版：2026-02-28
- Accepted：
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Huakun Li, Connor E. Weiss, Vimal Prabhu Pandiyan, 等. Optoretinography reveals rapid rod photoreceptor movement upon rhodopsin activation[J]. Light: Science & Applications, 2026,15(2):620-633.

Li, H. et al. Optoretinography reveals rapid rod photoreceptor movement upon rhodopsin activation. Light: Science & Applications, 15, 620-633 (2026).
Huakun Li, Connor E. Weiss, Vimal Prabhu Pandiyan, 等. Optoretinography reveals rapid rod photoreceptor movement upon rhodopsin activation[J]. Light: Science & Applications, 2026,15(2):620-633. DOI： 10.1038/s41377-025-02149-6.

Li, H. et al. Optoretinography reveals rapid rod photoreceptor movement upon rhodopsin activation. Light: Science & Applications, 15, 620-633 (2026). DOI： 10.1038/s41377-025-02149-6.

摘要

Abstract

Rod photoreceptors are essential for vision under dim light conditions and are highly vulnerable in retinal degenerative diseases. Here

we demonstrate that both human and rodent rods undergo a minute and rapid contraction of their outer segments upon photoisomerization

the first step of phototransduction. The contraction is explained as an electromechanical manifestation of the rod early receptor potential generated in the disk membranes

which is challenging to access in electrophysiology. The in vivo optical imaging of light-evoked electrical activity in rodent rods was facilitated by an ultrahigh-resolution point-scan optical coherence tomography (OCT) system

combined with an unsupervised learning approach to separate the light-evoked response of the rod outer segment tips from the retinal pigment epithelium-Bruch’s membrane complex. In humans

an adaptive optics line-scan OCT facilitated high-speed recordings in rods. The non-invasive in vivo optical imaging of rhodopsin activation extends the diagnostic capability of optoretinography

and may facilitate personalized

objective assessment of rod dysfunction and visual cycle impairment in inherited and age-related macular degeneration.

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Keywords

references

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