Bor-Wen YANG^*, Shih-Yuan WANG, Yu-Yen WANG, Jyun-Jhang CAI, and Chung-Hao CHANG

Department of Opto-Electronic System Engineering, Minghsin University of Science and Technology, Hsinchu, Taiwan 30401, R.O.C.

(Received February 13, 2013; Revised June 9, 2013; Accepted June 27, 2013)

Albinism is a kind of congenital disease of abnormal metabolism. Poecilia reticulata (guppy fish) is chosen as the model to study the development of albinic embryos as it is albinic, ovoviviparous and with short life period. This study proposed an imaging method for penetrative embryo investigation using optical coherence tomography. By imaging through guppy mother's reproduction purse, we found the embryo's eyes were the early-developed albinism features. As human's ocular albinism typically appear at about four weeks old, it is the time to determine if an embryo will grow into an albino.

Key words: albinism, Poecilia reticulata, optical coherence tomography, ocular albinism

^*E-mail address: bwyang@must.edu.tw