Histological Evaluation of Macular Pigment in the Human Retina

¹Spital G., ²van Kuijk E., ³Alexander R., ⁴Bird A. C., ³Luthert P., ¹Pauleikhoff D.,
¹St. Franziskus-Hospital, Augenabteilung (Münster)
²University of Texas, Medical Branch, Dept. of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences (Texas)
³Institute of Ophthalmology (London)
⁴Institute of Ophthalmology, Moorfields Eye Hospital (London)

Purpose: Clinical investigations demonstrated a variation in the peak optical density as well as the spatial distribution of macular pigment. To confirm these results histologically the present study examined the distribution of macular pigment in the human retina.
Methods: The macular retina of 12 donor eyes of different ages were examined histologically on 100 µm vibratome sections directly with white light, without any staining. Photographs for documentation were taken immedeately from each section.
Results: The macula demonstrated a variation in the spatial extension of the visible macular pigment between 400 - 900 µm diameter around the center of the fovea with no correlation with the donor age. The main location of macular pigment was in the layer of the fibres of Henle in the fovea and in between the nuclear layers in the parafovea.
Conclusions: Histologically a wide variation of the spatial distribution could be observed which confirms psychophysical and clinical findings of motion photometry and autofluorescence images. Given the large variation in spatial extension, peak optical density of MP may not be appropriate to estimate MP content. The primary localisation of macular pigment is in the inner retinal layers of the fovea and parafovea.

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