Abstract

The ocular lens is an important refractive element in the optical system of the eye; however, its three-dimensional structure has not been visualized in the in situ living eye. Laser scanning confocal light microscopy was used to image living rabbit eyes with submicrometer resolution. Optical serial sections of the in situ ocular lens were obtained in 1μm steps. The light source was a 25 mW argonion laser, and the microscope objective was a Leitz 25 ×, N.A. 0.6, water objective. The two-dimensional data sets imaged the lens capsule, the lens epithelium, and the internal structure of the lens fibrils. The two-dimensional data sets were digitally processed in several modes. The first mode created stereo pairs by tilting the angle of view of the left and right images and by using red and green glasses to fuse the images. The second mode used ray-tracing techniques to generate a three-dimensional visualization of the eye. The three-dimensional visualizations of the eye were processed as film loops with changing images showing different angles of tilt and rotation.

© 1990 Optical Society of America