Multimodal photoacoustic microscopy (PAM) and optical coherence tomography (OCT) have been developed for visualization of different retinal tissues such as retinal pigment endothelium (RPE), retinal and choroidal vessels, and retinal neovascularization (RNV) with promising results. However, one limitation of these studies is that it is hard to distinguish abnormal and healthy retinal vessels. To address such limitations, this study focused on the development of novel ultrapure chain-like cluster gold nanoparticles (CGNPs) to boost the PAM and OCT image contrast for enhanced visualization of RNV. CGNPs have a redshift plasmonic absorption peak at 650 nm where blood vessels generate a very low intrinsic photoacoustic signal, resulting in enhanced signal-to-noise ratio, and thus allowing for distinguishing RNV. Toxicity of CGNPs was tested on three different cells: bovine retinal endothelial cells (BRECs), HeLa cells, and brain endothelial cells (b.End3). The ability of CGNPs for contrast
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