Abstract #3257

Thule P, Cheng H, Pardue M, Duong T

We used MRI to visualize three strips corresponding to established anatomical structures in the rat retina. The inner strip nearest to the vitreous, which appeared relatively brighter on T1-weighted images and was enhanced by Gd-DTPA, was assigned to be the ganglion and bipolar cell layer and the embedded retinal vasculature. The middle strip, which appeared darker on T1-weighted images and was not enhanced by Gd-DTPA, was the photoreceptor layer. The outer strip which exhibited similar characteristics as the inner strip was the choroidal vascular layer. The retinal thickness, including the choroid complex, was 30720 micrometer by MRI and 18535 micrometer by histology.