The machine learning classification of retinal ganglion cell dendritic texture in a 3xTg-Alzheimer’s disease mouse model

Kulmaganbetov, Mukhit ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2112-4208, Khaidarov, Saken, Bevan, Ryan ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2557-2887 and Morgan, James E. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8920-1065 2026. The machine learning classification of retinal ganglion cell dendritic texture in a 3xTg-Alzheimer’s disease mouse model. Diagnostics 16 (16) , 2672. 10.3390/diagnostics16162672

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Abstract

Background/Objectives: Retinal imaging has considerable potential for monitoring Alzheimer’s disease (AD) neurodegeneration, as retinal ganglion cell dendritic atrophy within the inner plexiform layer (IPL) is an early event. We tested whether quantitative optical coherence tomography (OCT) speckle texture analysis combined with supervised machine learning could discriminate AD-related IPL alterations without exogenous contrast agents in a mouse model. Methods: Retinal explants from triple-transgenic AD mice (n = 7, aged 12 months) and C57BL/6 controls (n = 3, aged 15 months) were imaged ex vivo using a custom 1040 nm spectral-domain OCT system. Five grey-level co-occurrence matrix (GLCM) features were extracted from IPL volumes of interest (VOIs) and classified using a linear support vector machine (SVM). Results: AD and control IPL textures formed two completely separable clusters in a two-dimensional feature space defined by contrast and entropy (0°), achieving 100% VOI-level classification accuracy (95% CI: 96.4–100%). However, given the small sample size, VOI-level rather than animal-level validation, lack of histological confirmation, non-interleaved image acquisition, and differences in age/strain between groups, these results represent exploratory dataset separability rather than a validated diagnostic test. Conclusions: These findings demonstrate the feasibility of the ligand-free, texture-based OCT discrimination of IPL alterations, indicating a strong underlying optical signal. Adequately powered, in vivo longitudinal studies with matched controls, interleaved acquisition, animal-level cross-validation, and histological validation are required before any clinical translation.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Schools > Medicine Schools > Optometry and Vision Sciences Research Institutes & Centres > Systems Immunity Research Institute (SIURI)
Publisher:	MDPI
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	27 August 2026
Date of Acceptance:	19 August 2026
Last Modified:	27 Aug 2026 12:00
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/189207

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