Fig. 7. Changes in Ocular Appearance with Exposure Duration.

(A) Three examples of media opacities observed in Tulp1^+/+ from mouse eyes (n = 8) at 5, 25, 45, & 65 min post-EPIP. Qualitatively, it is easily observed that eyes immediately following EPIP have a charcoal black appearance and transition to a bluish-gray hue within 25 min. Past 25 min, eye opacities become brighter in appearance and proceed towards a neutral, grayish-white color. These visual, qualitative observations were quantified so that they could be shown graphically in CIE L*a*b* color space (C-E). (C) Brightness (L*) significantly increased with exposure duration. (D) Green-Red (a*) exhibited a small (~2–3 units), but significant shift from neutral to a green hue after 45 and 65 min. (E) Blue-Yellow (b*) experienced a slightly larger (5 units) and very significant shift (p < 0.0001) to blue at 25 min from the original neutral black color at 5 min. Moreover, at 45 & 65 min post-EPIP, the blue hue found at 25 min significantly returned to the original baseline value observed at 5 min. Color values obtained for the plots shown in C-E were used to generate a CIE Lab Space Color Rendition (B) to recreate the mean appearance of mice with ocular opacities artificially. In these examples, the mean CIE Lab values for the pupil are reported as L*, a*, b* values and displayed in a two-dimensional, en face view of the mouse eye including the surrounding iris and periorbital region. This example demonstrates that the reconstituted color values are similar to the in vivo digital color photographic observations and accurately replicate these changes. Retinal lesion impact area correlated moderately strong with ocular exposure duration, decreasing anterior chamber depth and opacity brightness. Thus, it would appear that opacity brightness is an excellent visual indicator of lesion development probability.