An optical device that peers through the eyes of a mouse enables scientists to monitor the cells passing through its bloodstream, holding hope for researchers treating cancer and other diseases.
The device, developed by researchers from the Wellman Center for Photomedicine at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, is called a retinal flow cylinder. The device non-invasively samples blood passing through the vessels in the retinal tissue in back of the eye. The researchers were able to detect fluorescent labeled cells circulating through the mouse's blood.
According to the scientists, the ability to count circulating cells is important in diseases like multiple myeloma, because the tiny number of cancer cells present at the onset of the disease represents only a fraction of circulating cells in the bloodstream.
