CHARACTERIZATION OF THE CELLULAR MICROSTRUCTURE OF OCULAR LENS USING 2D POWER-LAW ANALYSIS

Power law analysis provides a quantitative method for characterization of spatial fluctuations in the cellular microstructure of the ocular lens. In the power law analysis, Fourier components of the spatial flu ctuations are computed, and the relationship between the amplitude, A, and spatial frequency, f, of the components is defined by a power law function: \A\(2) approximate to (1/f)beta. The exponent of the functi on, beta, defines the scaling of the amplitude of the Fourier componen ts as a function of spatial frequency. We performed two-dimensional po wer law analysis on electron micrographs of lens cells ranging from tr ansparent to opaque. We identified two values of power law exponent, b eta, for the spatial fluctuations of all lens cells, one for low and a second for high-spatial frequencies. In the low-spatial frequency reg ion, the value of beta was in the range of 0.53 to 1.33, for transpare nt and opaque cells. In the high-spatial frequency region, the value o f beta increased from 2.78 for transparent lens cells to 3.60 for opaq ue lens cells. The power law analysis provides a new method for quanti tative characterization of the spatial fluctuations in the microstruct ure of transparent and opaque lens cells.