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Prog Retin Eye Res. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2021 January 01.
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Published in final edited form as:

Prog Retin Eye Res. 2020 January ; 74: 100773. doi:10.1016/[Link].2019.100773.

Scleral structure and biomechanics

Craig Boote1,2,3, Ian A. Sigal4, Rafael Grytz5, Yi Hua4, Thao D. Nguyen6, Michael J. A.
Girard2,7
1Structural Biophysics Research Group, School of Optometry & Vision Sciences, Cardiff
University, UK.
2Ophthalmic Engineering & Innovation Laboratory, Department of Biomedical Engineering,
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National University of Singapore, Singapore.

3Newcastle Research & Innovation Institute, Singapore.
4Laboratory of Ocular Biomechanics, Department of Ophthalmology, University of Pittsburgh,
USA.
5Department of Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences, University of Alabama, USA.
6Department of Mechanical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, USA.
7Singapore Eye Research Institute, Singapore National Eye Centre, Singapore.

Abstract
As the eye’s main load-bearing connective tissue, the sclera is centrally important to vision. In
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addition to cooperatively maintaining refractive status with the cornea, the sclera must also
provide stable mechanical support to vulnerable internal ocular structures such as the retina and
optic nerve head. Moreover, it must achieve this under complex, dynamic loading conditions
imposed by eye movements and fluid pressures. Recent years have seen significant advances in
our knowledge of scleral biomechanics, its modulation with ageing and disease, and their
relationship to the hierarchical structure of the collagen-rich scleral extracellular matrix (ECM)
and its resident cells. This review focuses on notable recent structural and biomechanical studies,
setting their findings in the context of the wider scleral literature. It reviews recent progress in the
development of scattering and bioimaging methods to resolve scleral ECM structure at multiple
scales. In-vivo and ex-vivo experimental methods to characterize scleral biomechanics are
explored, along with computational techniques that combine structural and biomechanical data to
simulate ocular behaviour and extract tissue material properties. Studies into alterations of scleral
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structure and biomechanics in myopia and glaucoma are presented, and their results reconciled
with associated findings on changes in the ageing eye. Finally, new developments in scleral
surgery and emerging non-invasive therapies are highlighted that could offer new hope in the fight
against escalating scleral-related vision disorder worldwide.

Correspondence: Craig Boote, PhD, Structural Biophysics Research Group, School of Optometry & Vision Sciences, Cardiff
University, Maindy Road, Cardiff CF24 4HQ, UK, Tel: +44 (0)2920 874859, bootec@[Link].
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Keywords
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sclera; connective tissue structure; biomechanics; myopia; glaucoma; ageing

1. Introduction
Forming around 85% of the outer tunic of the human eyeball, the sclera is a remarkably
resilient and structurally complex connective tissue that performs multiple functions critical
to vision. Derived from the Greek word “skleros” (meaning “hard”), the sclera’s primary
role is to provide a firm and stable substrate for the retina and to protect the other
mechanically vulnerable internal structures of the eye, while its opacity prevents off-axial
light transmission that could otherwise degrade the retinal image. Scleral and corneal
geometry are cooperatively regulated to accurately focus light onto the retina. Although
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under normal conditions the sclera can be considered metabolically quiescent, it is far from
inert in a biomechanical sense. Indeed, it is required to maintain optical stability under
highly dynamic loading conditions imposed externally and internally by, amongst other
factors, eye movements and a continually fluctuating intraocular pressure (IOP). The sclera’s
ability to resist deformations that might otherwise impair vision through distortion of the
retina or the lens-iris diaphragm relies on biomechanical characteristics imparted by regional
specializations of its connective tissue organization. In recent years, widening collaboration
between clinicians, scientists and engineers has led to significant advances in our
understanding of dynamic scleral behaviour. Naturally it follows that we are beginning to
perceive with more clarity the central role that the sclera plays in conditions that deteriorate
vision. This article aims to summarize and reconcile the findings of these studies as it
reviews our current knowledge of scleral structure and biomechanics, their implications in
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ageing and disease, and explores some promising therapeutic avenues in search of novel
scleral treatments.

1.1 Basic scleral anatomy and function

At its anterior boundary the sclera merges with the corneal perimeter at the limbus and
extends backward to form an approximate sphere of vertical diameter ~24mm. The axial
length of the emmetropic adult human eye is 24–25mm. At the back of the eye, the scleral
connective tissue fuses with the dural sheath of the optic nerve, whose entry pierces the
sclera about 3mm nasally and 1mm downward of the posterior pole. Scleral thickness varies
with anatomical position, decreasing from 1–1.3mm at the posterior pole to ~0.5mm at the
equator, before increasing again to ~0.8mm in the perilimbal sclera. (Fig 1A).
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1.1.1 Tenon’s capsule—Tenon’s capsule (fascia bulbi) is a compact layer of radial

collagen bundles that lie parallel to the scleral surface. At its anterior origin, Tenon’s capsule
is anchored firmly to the underlying episclera and the overlying conjunctiva, before
becoming more loosely bound to the episclera further back as the capsule coalesces with the
perimysium of the recti muscles. Biomechanically, the Tenon’s capsule fulfils an important
function in acting as a pulley system to transfer forces from the ocular muscles to the sclera
during eye movements (Roth et al., 2002).

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1.1.2 Episclera—Lying directly beneath Tenon’s capsule, the episclera is a thin but
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dense layer of connective tissue consisting mainly of collagen bundles sparsely populated
with elastic fibres, melanocytes and macrophages (Watson and Young, 2004). In contrast to
the neighbouring Tenon’s capsule, collagen bundles of the episclera run largely
circumferentially, and render the episclera more difficult to distinguish as a distinct layer by
their gradual merging into the connective tissue of the underlying stroma.

1.1.3 Stroma—As the major scleral tissue layer, the stroma (substantia propria)
dominates the sclera’s biomechanical performance. Stromal material properties can be
summarized as non-linear viscoelastic, and stem from its collagen-rich extracellular matrix
(ECM) composition and organization. Bundles of parallel-aligned individual collagen fibrils
of diameter 25–230nm, interspersed in places with elastic microfibrils and fibres, form 0.5–
6μm thick lamellae that lie roughly in the plane of the eyeball surface (Fig 1B). Scleral
lamellae overall demonstrate far more branching and interweaving than those of the corneal
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stroma, and the extent of this varies with both tissue depth and anatomical location (Komai
and Ushiki, 1991). Superficially, the scleral collagen fibril bundles merge with tendon fibres
at the extraocular muscles insertion sites, while in the deepest stromal layers adjacent to the
uvea (the lamina fusca) they taper and branch to intermingle with the underlying choroidal
connective tissue, co-localizing with increased numbers of elastic fibres (Marshall, 1995).
Unlike the eyes of humans and other primates, the scleral stroma of many non-eutherian
vertebrates comprises an inner cartilage layer in addition to an outer fibrous layer (Walls,
1942). Further, the anterior sclera of many birds, reptiles and teleost fish contains a ring of
bony plates (ossicles) (Franz-Odendaal, 2008) that are thought to provide leverage for the
ciliary muscles in facilitating corneal accommodation (Glasser et al., 1994), and into which
meridional fibril bundles of the anterior sclera insert (Boote et al., 2008). In the human
sclera, regional specializations of the stromal architecture, as described below, are of
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particular biomechanical influence.

1.1.4 Perilimbal sclera, scleral spur and trabecular meshwork—On approaching

the limbus, the collagen bundles of the deep scleral stroma form a circumcorneal ring-like
structure at the scleral spur. Together with the circumferential limbal pseudo-annulus of
collagen residing in the posterior one-third of the corneal stroma (Kamma-Lorger et al.,
2010; Newton and Meek, 1998), the spur probably helps to maintain the corneal contour in
an area of heightened tissue stress imposed by the differing radii of curvature of the cornea
and sclera (Boote et al., 2009). Indeed, the use of partial thickness limbal incisions is an
established clinical procedure for inducing controlled flattening of the cornea as a means of
correcting mild corneal astigmatism. However not all the scleral collagen appears to end its
frontward course at the limbus, and there is evidence that a significant number of perilimbal
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scleral collagen bundles continue on into the corneal periphery (Boote et al., 2011), some of
which probably originate in the deep sclera (Winkler et al., 2013). At its anterior aspect, the
collagen fibrils of the scleral spur taper and become continuous with the connective tissue
beams of the corneoscleral trabecular meshwork (Watson and Young, 2004). Here, the
innermost layers of the spur, the so-called scleral roll, form a bordering substrate for the
Schlemm’s canal (SC), from whose posterior end an extension of the spur in the direction of
the anterior chamber provides an anchor point for attachment of the meridional fibres of the

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ciliary muscle to facilitate opening of the trabecular beams during aqueous drainage
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(Hamanaka, 1989). The corneoscleral trabecular beams are further notable for containing
significant amounts of elastin (Marshall, 1995; Umihira et al., 1994) and these are probably
continuous with the elastin networks observed in the deep limbus (Kamma-Lorger et al.,
2010) and the pre-Descemet’s stroma of the corneal periphery (Lewis et al., 2016). The
possibility of the corneo-limbal elastin network forming a continuous system with elastic
fibres in the sclera is an open question warranting further research.

1.1.5 Peripapillary sclera and lamina cribrosa—On approaching the optic nerve,
superficial layers of the stromal connective tissue merge with the dural sheath of the nerve
while the remaining deeper scleral fibres become continuous with the lamina cribrosa (LC) -
the highly fenestrated stack of interconnected plates that support the exiting retinal ganglion
cell (RGC) nerve axons and central retinal artery (Anderson, 1969). The LC and
peripapillary sclera (PPS - the 1–2mm wide region of sclera bordering the nerve canal
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opening) collectively form the connective tissue of the optic nerve head (ONH) (Fig 1D) - a
region of key biomechanical interest in glaucoma (Downs, 2015). Here the scleral collagen
fibrils are more uniform in diameter, show greater spatial order and associate with increased
numbers of elastin fibres compared to other regions of the posterior segment (Quigley et al.,
1991). A key biomechanical feature of the PPS is the circumferential pseudo-annulus of
collagen that surrounds the LC (Gogola et al., 2018b; Pijanka et al., 2012; Winkler et al.,
2010) that is probably necessary to limit canal expansion under IOP-loading (Girard et al.,
2009a; Grytz et al., 2011).

1.2 Scleral composition

The composition of the sclera follows that of other connective tissues in being primarily a
scaffold of fibrous collagen in a hydrated interfibrillar matrix of proteoglycans and
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glycoproteins (Table 1). Notwithstanding notable increases in the lamina fusca, perilimbal
sclera and PPS, the overall content of elastin fibres in the sclera is small at around 2% of the
dry weight (Watson and Young, 2004). Understandably from a metabolic perspective, the
quiescent sclera displays low cellularity with transient increases shown in response to
pathology or physical insult.

1.2.1 Collagens—In the sclera, type I collagen is by far the major contributor at around
95%, with types III , V and VI making up the remaining 5% (Keeley et al., 1984; Thale and
Tillmann, 1993). Scleral collagen structure is hierarchical (Fig 2). Tropocollagen molecules
of length ~300nm are composed of three polypeptide alpha-helix chains of repeating Gly-X-
Y amino acid sequences (Bailey et al., 1998). Five such molecules assemble to form ~4nm
diameter collagen microfibrils, in which adjacent molecules are axially staggered by 67nm
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(the D-period – see Fig 1C and Fig 2) (Piez and Miller, 1974). Parallel arrays of microfibrils
assemble into fibrils, such that individual microfibrils are slightly inclined (about 5°) to the
fibril axis (Yamamoto et al., 2000). Collagen fibrils, in turn, assemble into irregular bundles
that ultimately form the scleral lamellae. Scleral collagen fibrils are heterotypic: studies of
macular sclera indicated interstitial collagen fibrils of co-polymerized types I/III, with type
V residing at the fibril surface and type VI forming inter-bundle filament structures
(Marshall et al., 1993). The presence of types V and VI at and between fibril surfaces

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suggests likely roles in fibril assembly and diameter regulation, as envisaged in other tissues
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(Izu et al., 2011; Linsenmayer et al., 1993; Wenstrup et al., 2004). In contrast to some other
connective tissues, such as tendon, collagen in the sclera does not assemble into discrete
structures of a regular size beyond the fibril level. However, the general term “fibre” is used
widely in the biomechanics literature to refer to the suprafibrillar collagen arrangement of
the sclera and will also be used in this review. It should also be noted that some techniques
that utilize visible light to examine suprafibrillar scleral microstructure (see s2.1.2 and
s2.1.4) will contain both collagen and elastin components in their “fibre” signal.

1.2.2 Proteoglycans—Proteoglycans (PGs) inhabit the collagen interfibrillar space and

help to mediate fibril size and organization. PGs consist of a protein core with one or more
attached glycosaminoglycan (GAG) sidechains of repeating disaccharide units of either
chondroitin sulfate, dermatan sulfate, keratan sulfate or heparin sulfate. The main sulfated
PGs present in sclera are aggrecan, decorin and biglycan (Rada et al., 2000; Rada et al.,
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1997). Sulfate residues on the GAG chains impart negative charge that binds water and
creates an incompressible “gel” that is ideal for mediating load transfer between the
embedded scleral collagen fibrils. Evidence for the importance of PGs in maintaining scleral
structure and biomechanics includes findings from research in knock-out mouse models
(Austin et al., 2002; Chakravarti et al., 2003) and from enzyme digestion studies in pig
(Murienne et al., 2015; Zhuola et al., 2018) and human (Murienne et al., 2016) sclera. The
presence and role of aggrecan in the sclera is not well understood. Aggrecan is a large
proteoglycan normally found in cartilage. Due to its many attached glycosaminoglycan
sidechains, aggrecan provides osmotic properties that produce a swelling pressure. In
cartilage, this swelling pressure plays a critical role in withstanding compression forces, but
the importance of this swelling pressure in the sclera is unclear.
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1.2.3 Elastic fibres—The elastic fibre network is a proportionately small but

functionally important part of the scleral ECM, in particular in the deep tissues of the
perilimbal sclera/trabecular meshwork (Marshall, 1995) and throughout the ONH (Quigley
et al., 1991) where concentrations are notably increased. Mature scleral elastic fibres consist
of an amorphous elastin core sheathed by an aligned scaffold of fibrillin-rich microfibrils.
The significance of scleral elastic fibres to the structural integrity, shape and viscoelastic
behaviour of the eyeball is not fully understood, but is coming under increasing scrutiny
motivated by identified links between systemic microfibril disorders and ocular pathologies
such as myopia and glaucoma (Kuchtey and Kuchtey, 2014; Robinson and Booms, 2001).

1.2.4 Fibroblasts—With the exception of the lamina fusca, most regions of the sclera
are sparsely populated by cells until challenged by pathology, injury or infection. The
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resident cell of the scleral stroma is the fibrocyte, which undergoes transformation into the
active fibroblast upon insult. Fibroblasts are responsible for synthesis of all scleral ECM
components. They respond to mechanical stimuli from their surrounding ECM and there is
growing interest in understanding the extent of the role that fibroblasts might play in
dynamically regulating scleral biomechanics via matrix remodeling and contractile
responses (Harper and Summers, 2015; McBrien et al., 2009) (see s3.3.2). In addition to
mechanical stimuli, fibroblasts control scleral remodeling and alter tissue-level

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biomechanics in response to a signaling cascade from the retina to the sclera that is
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ultimately stimulated by vision. This vision-guided response plays a critical role during eye
development, determining the final size of the eye (see s4.3).

2. Scleral ECM structure at multiple scales

2.1 Microstructure
Influential studies into the fine structure of the sclera began over eighty years ago with the
work of Kokott, who used histological preparations to interpret the gross directions of
collagen lamellae across the ocular coat (Kokott, 1934) (Fig 3). While his methods were
undoubtedly crude, Kokott’s work has largely stood up to scrutiny by more sophisticated
techniques and can be considered something of a landmark in beginning the enduring notion
that scleral ECM structure is mechanically adapted to regional tensions in the ocular coat.
However, the past decade or so has seen significant progress in the development of more
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quantitative methods to determine scleral microstructure, driven in large part by advances in

numerical simulation of ocular biomechanics and the need to optimize models for clinical
use by the inclusion of more physiologically accurate data.

2.1.1 Wide-angle X-ray scattering—Wide-angle X-ray scattering (WAXS) is an ex-

vivo diffraction-based technique that does not yield an image of the tissue, but instead
produces a Fourier transform (WAXS pattern) from which collagen structure parameters can
be extracted (Meek and Boote, 2009) (Fig 4A). The main collagen WAXS peak from sclera
derives from the regular ~1.6nm lateral separation of tropocollagen molecules within the
fibrils (Fig 2). Calibration of the radial position of this peak can be useful to detect changes
in intrafibrillar scleral collagen packing, for example as occurs in non-enzymatic cross-
linking with age (Malik et al., 1992) (see s4.1). Moreover, because the constituent molecules
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are aligned near-axially within fibrils, WAXS can obtain a thickness-averaged measure of
scleral fibril orientation and anisotropy in the tissue plane, without the need for tissue
processing (Fig 4B). Due to its extremely high signal specificity for collagen and tissue
averaging capabilities, WAXS has proven highly valuable in supplying extensive amounts of
data for use in numerical modelling (Coudrillier et al., 2013; Coudrillier et al., 2015a, b;
Coudrillier et al., 2015c; Pinsky et al., 2005).

Pijanka et al. (Pijanka et al., 2013; Pijanka et al., 2012) used WAXS to quantitatively map
collagen fibril orientation in the sclera of human donors. These studies confirmed the major
structural features originally identified by Kokott: strong uniaxial fibrillar orientation at the
extraocular muscle insertion sites and predominantly circumferential collagen in the PPS.
They further identified that the collagen anisotropy of the PPS psuedo-annulus is highly
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regionally variable and that this pattern is highly conserved between age-matched, normally
sighted donors (Pijanka et al., 2012). Inclusion of the WAXS data in inverse finite element
modelling (IFEM) indicated that disturbance of the PPS anisotropic structure could
significantly impact the ONH’s mechanical response to IOP fluctuation (Coudrillier et al.,
2013). A further WAXS study using serial cryo-sections (Pijanka et al., 2015) showed that
the human PPS psuedo-annulus is located primarily in the outer two-thirds of the stroma
(aligning with the normal LC insertion depth range into the scleral flange), with the

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remaining one-third exhibiting more random orientation and a preference toward radial
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alignment near the choroid.

While structural evidence and numerical modelling (Coudrillier et al., 2013; Girard et al.,
2009b; Grytz et al., 2011) are suggestive of a potential neuroprotective role in limiting IOP-
driven scleral canal expansion and LC strains, the exact functional importance of the PPS
structure remains to be established. Sigal and co-workers (Gogola et al., 2018b) recently
used a polarized light method (see s2.1.4) to show that the PPS circumferential structure is a
primary structural component across a range of large animal species. Furthermore, recent
work using WAXS indicates that the degree of PPS collagen circumferential alignment
varies between species and that eyes from smaller animals generally exhibit a more poorly
defined anisotropic structure (Fig 5). The marked difference between some species further
suggests that PPS structure may not be principally determined by IOP-generated scleral wall
stress in some eyes, and may be more strongly influenced by other biomechanically relevant
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factors. For example, the wall stress in the tree shrew eye (diameter: 7.8mm, avg. scleral
thickness: 120μm, IOP: 13mmHg (Samuels et al., 2018; Siegwart and Norton, 1999)) is
predicted to be approximately twice that of the human eye (diameter: 24.2mm, thickness:
0.9mm, IOP: 17mmHg (Bekerman et al., 2014; Kouchaki et al., 2017; Vurgese et al., 2012)),
and yet the PPS circumferential structure in the tree shrew (Fig 5B) is far less evident than in
humans (Fig 5F), despite the two species having similarly well-developed connective tissue
LCs (Albon et al., 2007). Further interspecies studies may help to tease out possible
physiological, behavioural and anatomical factors that may interact with IOP in influencing
posterior scleral collagen microstructure.

2.1.2 Small-angle light scattering—Small-angle light scattering (SALS) is another

ex-vivo technique that can be used to quantitatively map protein fibre organization in
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collagenous soft tissues. Similar to WAXS, SALS also produces diffraction patterns from the
interaction of light with a tissue patch; but instead of X-rays SALS uses laser light. Because
of the higher wavelength (usually 632.8 μm from a HeNe laser), SALS is thought to be
capable of mapping the organization and orientation of larger structures such as collagen
fibril bundles (~ 1–10 μm in size), but cannot distinguish between collagen and elastin
fibres. For the eye, SALS was first used to map scleral fibre orientation in normal rat sclera.
The rat sclera was found to be structurally anisotropic with several consistent features. At
the limbus, collagen fibres were highly aligned and organized primarily into a distinct ring
surrounding the cornea. In the equatorial region, the fibres were primarily meridionally
aligned. In the posterior sclera and PPS, the scleral fibres were mostly circumferential but
less aligned than those in the anterior and equatorial regions (Girard et al., 2011a). SALS
has also been used extensively to study the microstructure of the human sclera from healthy
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and glaucoma donors. Interestingly, in humans PPS collagen fibres were also
circumferential, consistent with the aforementioned scheme envisaged to shield the optic
nerve, but they exhibited the highest alignment (i.e. degree of anisotropy) not immediately
adjacent to, but at a distance (400–500 μm) away from the scleral canal (Zhang et al.,
2015a). Using computational modeling, such an arrangement (i.e. heterogenous collagen
fibre organization) was found to minimize deformations at the scleral canal boundary - a
transition zone prone to disinsertion of the LC, focal LC defects, and optic disc hemorrhages

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in glaucoma (Fig 6). In humans, SALS was also used to identify key differences in scleral
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microstructure with age and with glaucoma (Danford et al., 2013; Jones et al., 2015). In one
study, collagen fibres in the PPS were found to be more aligned in elderly healthy eyes
(average age: 82 years old) than in young healthy eyes (average: 20 years old), and also
more aligned than in elderly glaucoma eyes (average age: 82 years old) (Jones et al., 2015)
(see also s4.2). Scleral anisotropy was also found to change significantly as a function of
depth (Danford et al., 2013). However, it is still unclear how a disrupted collagenous ring in
the PPS could predispose an individual to glaucoma.

2.1.3 Multiphoton microscopy—Multiphoton microscopy (MPM) is an optical

imaging technique that utilizes high penetration pulsed lasers (usually infrared) and
nonlinear optics to achieve fine optical sectioning through biological tissues several hundred
microns thick, without the need for exogenous labelling. Second harmonic generation (SHG)
imaging exploits the coherent scattering event whereby two incident photos are converted
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into a single photon of half the original wavelength. SHG signal emission is an intrinsic
property of biological materials containing large repetitive, non-centrosymmetric units that
include collagen, and indeed SHG has been used extensively to probe the organization of
scleral collagen fibril bundles (Brown et al., 2007; Cone-Kimball et al., 2013; Jones et al.,
2015; Keyes et al., 2011; Pijanka et al., 2012; Teng et al., 2006; Zyablitskaya et al., 2018)
(Fig 1D). The ability of SHG to image large tissue volumes has enabled full 3D
reconstructions of the ex-vivo human ONH to be built (Winkler et al., 2010), while its
application in monitoring real-time pressure-induced LC and PPS deformations (Midgett et
al., 2018; Sigal et al., 2014a) is enhancing our understanding of the role of IOP in glaucoma
biomechanics. Increasingly, other MPM imaging modalities are being combined with SHG
to colocalize scleral collagen with cells and other ECM components. The most notable
example is two-photon fluorescence (TPF), in which the additive absorption of two incident
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photons results in the emission of an autofluorescence photon of a higher energy. Amongst

other structures, TPF can be used to visualize elastin fibre networks over large scleral tissue
volumes (Park et al., 2016) (Fig 7).

2.1.4 Polarized Light Microscopy—Collagen in the sclera is birefringent

(Chakraborty et al., 2016; Jan et al., 2015) - the optical property of a material having a
refractive index that depends on the polarization and propagation direction of light. Jan et al.
have demonstrated that polarized light microscopy (PLM) is a powerful technique for the
study of the collagen microstructure in the sclera (Jan et al., 2015). PLM can produce
accurate, repeatable, and robust measurements of collagen fibre orientation with μm-scale
resolution over a broad (cm) field of view, unaffected by formalin fixation, without requiring
tissue dehydration, labeling or staining. PLM has been shown to be in good agreement with
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other measurements of collagen, such as those from autofluorescence (Jan et al., 2017b).
However current PLM techniques do not measure elastin, and it remains unclear if it is at all
possible. Using PLM, Jan et al. identified three distinct regions of scleral collagen fibre
organization, with circumferential, radial (sometimes called meridional) or interweaving
fibres (Fig 8). They reported these first in the sheep (Jan et al., 2017b), then in human,
monkey, pig, cow and goat eyes (Gogola et al., 2018b). The consistency in scleral

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microstructure across species suggests that these three regions are primary organizational
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components whose functions should be better understood.

Although there is consensus that circumferential fibres protect neural tissues by resisting
canal expansion, the role of the interweaving fibres remains unclear. Wang and colleagues
hypothesized that the fibre interweaving increases tissue stiffness (Wang et al., 2018). Their
computational models suggest that a region of sclera with interwoven fibres can be more
than twice as stiff as another region with the same amount of collagen organized with the
same angular distribution but with no interweaving. This suggests that characterizing fibre
interweaving may be of critical importance to understand how the sclera bears loads.

PLM has been further used to characterize the micron-scale waviness, or crimp, of the
collagen fibres in the sclera. Crimp is important because it is a major determinant of tissue
biomechanical behavior (Fig 9) (Grytz and Meschke, 2009). Using PLM, Jan et al.
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quantified the collagen crimp period in the LC and PPS in sheep eyes at low and normal IOP
levels (Jan et al., 2017a). They found that the crimp period was smaller and less variable in
the LC than in the PPS (Fig 10), suggesting a configuration that prevents large or
heterogeneous deformations that insult the neural tissues within the canal (Fig 11). In
addition, the crimp period in the PPS increased nonlinearly with distance from the canal,
which is believed to provide a smooth transition of mechanical properties that minimizes
stress and strain concentrations. This technique was then extended to quantify the collagen
crimp morphology across the corneoscleral shell in sheep (Jan et al., 2018) and human
(Gogola et al., 2018a) eyes. In these studies, it was found that crimp tortuosity, amplitude
and waviness are not uniform over the globe, exhibiting distinct patterns that were similar
across species (Fig 12).
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The traditional PLM used in the studies mentioned above shares an important limitation with
SALS and WAXS: it only quantifies in-plane fibre orientation (in the plane perpendicular to
the light beam). A more advanced technique, 3DPLM, allows quantifying both in-plane and
out-of-plane fibre orientation (Fig 13) (Yang et al., 2018b). This is potentially crucial given
the complex 3D architecture of ocular collagen (Komai et al., 1991), where 2D projections
could lead to inaccurate interpretations and conclusions (Yang et al., 2018b). Similar to
SALS and WAXS, traditional PLM is a transmitted signal technique. This means that the
measurements obtained are an aggregate of properties across the sample thickness. As
mentioned (see s2.1.1), this can offer important advantages in enabling collection of
effective structural data for use in numerical simulations. On the other hand, obtaining finely
depth-resolved information using transmitted-light techniques requires the use of thin
sections which, in turn, precludes or complicates analysis of dynamic events such as
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pressure-induced tissue deformations. For PLM, scattering, absorption and retardance limit
usable sections to under 50 μm in thickness, and best data to 30 μm or less. To overcome this
limitation, Yang et al. introduced structured polarized light microscopy (SPLM) imaging, a
reflected light imaging technique that combines structured light illumination with PLM
(Yang et al., 2018a). SPLM effectively rejects diffuse background light interfering with the
polarization analysis and preserves light encoded with useful tissue birefringence
information, thus enabling the visualization and quantification of collagen fibres of thick
tissues while under realistic loading conditions, such as during inflation (Fig 14).

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As a full-field imaging technique, PLM is generally faster than scanning-based techniques.

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However, it still requires multiple image acquisitions with various filter configurations. This
limits the acquisition speed, and thus the range of experiments in which it can be used. To
overcome this, Yang and colleagues developed snapshot PLM (Yang et al., 2019), which
allows real time visualization of the scleral bundles and the constitutive collagen fibres with
sub-micron resolution in fresh, unlabeled samples (Fig 15).

2.1.5 Magnetic Resonance Imaging—Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has been

used to image the corneoscleral shell and obtain details of the ocular anatomy, such as the
globe shape and tissue thickness (Norman et al., 2010a; Voorhees et al., 2017; Wang et al.,
2016a). However, MRI studies of the collagen microstructure in the sclera have been limited,
partly due to the intrinsically fast transverse magnetic resonance relaxation of the fibrous
tissues and the resulting low MRI signal intensities (Luan et al., 2006). Ho et al.
demonstrated the use of the magic-angle enhancement effect to improve MRI sensitivity for
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detecting the collagen microstructure in the sclera (Ho et al., 2014). They found that, at the
magic angle (approximately 55° relative to the direction of the main magnetic field), MRI
can reveal the distinct lamellae fibres in the ovine sclera, and the light/dark bands indicative
of collagen fibre crimps (Fig 16). Magic angle-enhanced MRI can also reveal sub-voxel
microstructural changes of collagen fibres with IOP elevation. Using diffusion tensor MRI,
Ho et al. found that the fractional anisotropy of the ovine sclera increased with IOP,
consistent with uncrimping and straightening of microstructural fibres (Ho et al., 2016).
Magic angle-enhanced MRI technique has the potential to enable cross-sectional and
longitudinal monitoring of the functional microstructures of the eye and their relationship
with aging and diseases involving the sclera, such as acute and chronic ocular hypertension,
glaucoma, and myopia. However, before this can be realized, important technical challenges
remain, particularly the resolution and the long scan times (often over 12h in the studies
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mentioned above).

2.2 Nanostructure
2.2.1 Scanning electron microscopy—Study of the interaction of incident electrons
with the atoms of a target specimen allows the direct imaging of structure at resolutions
beyond 1nm. For biological specimens this generally comes at the price of invasive tissue
preparation involving dehydration, chemical fixation and heavy metal staining/coating to
stabilize and preserve tissue structure and enhance image contrast. Scanning electron
microscopy (SEM) produces images of a sample surface at <1nm resolution by scanning it
with a focused electron beam and detecting (usually) the emission of secondary electrons
from target atoms excited by the incident beam. Alternatively, an SEM image can be
obtained from the reflected/transmitted incident electrons. As documented in several
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landmark papers (Komai and Ushiki, 1991; Thale and Tillmann, 1993; Yamamoto et al.,
2000) SEM has made central contributions to our fundamental knowledge of scleral collagen
hierarchical structure and organization. In recent years the advent of volume SEM methods
have made it possible to image tissue ultrastructure in 3D over specimen volumes of
hundreds of cubic microns (Bushby et al., 2011) and these methods are currently providing
insight into how the elastin fibre network of the anterior sclera might integrate with that of
the peripheral cornea (Lewis et al., 2016).

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2.2.2 Transmission electron microscopy—In transmission electron microscopy

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(TEM) an electron beam is transmitted through an ultrathin (~100nm) section of a specimen

and can image nanostructure at unparalleled resolution (Fig 1B,C). With modern aberration
corrected electron microscopes, it is now possible to resolve structures of dimensions
<0.1nm. TEM has made many major contributions in scleral research, in particular in the use
of cationic dyes (Quantock and Meek, 1988; Young, 1985) and immunogold particulate
markers (Kimura et al., 1995; Marshall et al., 1993) to elucidate collagen-collagen and
collagen-proteoglycan interactions, and in defining ECM alterations in scleral pathology
(Cone-Kimball et al., 2013; Funata and Tokoro, 1990; McBrien et al., 2001; Quigley et al.,
1991). Recent years have seen notable progress in tissue cryopreservation methods that
significantly reduce structural artifacts induced by post-processing in conventional TEM,
allowing high resolution imaging of the sclera that is closer to the physiological situation
(Costa et al., 2016; Ismail et al., 2017). Current bioimaging trends towards 3D visualization
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of ECM ultrastructure are reflected in recently documented electron tomography (Luesma et

al., 2013) and quick-freeze/deep-etch (QFDE) electron microscopy (Ismail et al., 2017) (Fig
17) studies of the sclera.

2.2.3 AFM—In atomic force microscopy (AFM) contact scanning of a sample surface is
performed with a fine mechanical probe. As an imaging technique, AFM can produce
topographic surface images of a specimen with in-plane and depth resolutions of
respectively ~2nm and ~0.1nm. An advantage of AFM over electron microscopy is that it
does not require any artifact-inducing treatments and thus can provide a more physiological
view of the tissue. However, the scanning area in AFM (typically a few hundred microns
across) is an order of magnitude below that achievable with SEM. AFM has been used to
visualize and quantify scleral collagen fibril diameter, D-period (Fullwood et al., 1995)
(Meller et al., 1997) and microfibrillar tilt angle (Yamamoto et al., 2000). Importantly, AFM
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provides a unique link between tissue ultrastructure and mechanics by being able to measure
forces between the probe and specimen surface in parallel with imaging. This has been
exploited to determine the contribution of different tissue layers (Grant et al., 2011) and
ECM components (Zhuola et al., 2018) of the sclera to its mechanical performance. A
further strength of AFM is that it can also be used for precision manipulation of the local
sample environment. For example it can mechanically stimulate individual cells and monitor
the effects in real-time by synchronization with other imaging modalities (e.g. fluorescence
imaging), as demonstrated in work with cultured immune cells (Cazaux et al., 2016).
However, the potential for using AFM in mechanotransduction studies of the sclera is yet to
be realized.

3. Scleral biomechanics
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3.1 Ex-vivo biomechanical characterization methods

3.1.1 Tensile strip testing—Much of what we know about the fundamental material
properties of the sclera has come from tensile strip testing of scleral stress-strain behavior. A
large body of work using enucleated eyes from humans (Eilaghi et al., 2010; Elsheikh et al.,
2010; Geraghty et al., 2012; Shin et al., 2018), monkeys (Downs et al., 2005), chicks
(Phillips et al., 2000), pigs (Lari et al., 2012), tree shrews (Levy et al., 2018), rabbits (Shin et

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al., 2018), cows (Shin et al., 2018) and dogs (Palko et al., 2011) have established that the
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sclera is a non-linear material, exhibiting a strain-stiffening response as crimped collagen

fibrils become gradually recruited to bear load (see Fig 11). These studies have also
confirmed that the sclera is viscoelastic and displays significant hysteresis. They have shown
us that the healthy sclera displays considerable mechanical anisotropy that varies with
anatomical position, consistent with the regional microstructural variations in tissue ECM
structure discussed in s2.1. Furthermore, strip testing has been used to uncover important
biomechanical changes of the sclera with ageing, glaucoma and myopia that will be
described in Section 4.

While strip testing has long been a standard method of scleral biomechanical measurement,
there are recognized limitations with the technique. Firstly, the scleral tissue strips required
for testing are unavoidably curved and demonstrate variations in thickness and structural
anisotropy along their length. This can lead to large errors in measured material behaviour
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that require mathematical back-correction to solve (Elsheikh and Anderson, 2005).

Secondly, obtaining repeatable measurements with strip testing requires preconditioning
cycles that fundamentally alter the stress-strain response. These limitations have led, in
recent years, to a move towards the more physiological technique of inflation testing (see
s3.1.2), which significantly reduces the above problems (Lari et al., 2012; Tonge et al.,
2013). Nevertheless, strip testing continues to make important contributions to the scleral
literature, with notable recent studies reporting its use to assess the effects of crosslinking
treatment for myopia (Levy et al., 2018) and its combination with emergent polarization-
sensitive optical coherence tomography (PSOCT) imaging to determine scleral mechanical
response to dynamic loading (Shin et al., 2018).

3.1.2 Inflation testing—Although inflation testing cannot measure the stressed state of
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the sclera directly, it can be used to extract material properties by the applying a suitable
constitutive model (with some inherent assumptions) to the experimental pressure-
displacement data. Scleral inflation studies have been performed across a range of
mammalian species from mice to humans (Coudrillier et al., 2012; Cruz Perez et al., 2016;
Fazio et al., 2014a; Girard et al., 2009c; Myers et al., 2010a; Myers et al., 2010b; Nguyen et
al., 2013; Palko et al., 2016; Tang and Liu, 2012). While the experimental details vary across
these studies, the key components of the basic inflation set-up are common to all.

The first component needed is a controllable pressurization module. A fluid injection system
is required that allows adjustment of both target pressure and pressure-rate, usually achieved
via a combination of a syringe pump and a pressure transducer with feedback control. The
scleral specimen (usually the transected posterior hemisphere or thereabouts of the eye
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globe) is glued/clamped to the pressure chamber with separate inlets for fluid injection and
pressure measurement. The second component required is a deformation tracking module.
Tracking the surface displacement of the internally pressurized sclera at sufficiently high
resolution, and with enough precision, is the most challenging aspect of inflation testing, and
researchers have adopted various approaches. Girard et al. (Girard et al., 2009c) and Fazio et
al. (Fazio et al., 2014a) used electronic speckle pattern interferometry (ESPI) to track
posterior scleral surface displacements in monkeys and humans, respectively. ESPI works on
the principle that a rough surface illuminated with a coherent light beam (i.e. a laser) creates

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a random speckle light field. Interference of this field with a reference field then produces an
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interference pattern that is dependent on the surface displacement and can thus be used to
indirectly determine the latter in three dimensions. Coudrillier et al. (Coudrillier et al., 2012)
adopted a more direct approach in their inflation tests of human sclera, using graphite
powder to create contrast markers on the scleral surface. These markers were then tracked in
3D directly with a combination of CCD cameras and digital image correlation (DIC)
software. A DIC approach was also used by Myers et al. (Myers et al., 2010a), and
developed further by Nguyen et al. (Nguyen et al., 2013) in inflation tests of mouse sclera.
However, the small size of the mouse eye facilitated only 2D tracking of the scleral surface
profile. Tang and Liu (Tang and Liu, 2012) developed an alternative system, in which
ultrasound speckle tracking was used to obtain cross-sectional profiles of scleral
displacements in a porcine model. This was subsequently adapted successfully for studies in
human (Pavlatos et al., 2016) and canine (Palko et al., 2016) sclera.
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Going forward there is likely to be an emphasis on whole eye biomechanical modelling, and
there have already been associated developments in inflation testing methods. Lari et al (Lari
et al., 2012) developed a method to test intact eyeballs by using a combination of a skewer
and mineral oil bath to support and image cannulated pig eyes under inflation conditions.
Whitford et al. (Whitford et al., 2016) later developed a further variation on the whole eye
inflation/DIC approach, in which they placed intact eyeballs in a gelatin suspension to
further reduce external forces on the sclera (Fig 18). These kind of approaches have moved
inflation testing closer to the in-vivo situation by reducing non-physiological stress
concentrations and boundary conditions unavoidably imposed when clamping excised
scleral specimens in standard inflation regimens (Lari et al., 2012; Whitford et al., 2016).

3.1.3 Indentation testing—Indentation testing studies of the sclera are relatively

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sparse, but can be traced back more than three decades to the work of Battaglioli and Kamm.
They tested samples of sclera from cow and human eyes in compression and found that the
radial compressive stiffness of the sclera (i.e. its ability to resist indentation forces
perpendicular to the tissue plane) was approximately 100 times less than its circumferential
(i.e. in-plane) stiffness (Battaglioli and Kamm, 1984). The results of this study highlight an
important fundamental material property of the sclera – that it is an essentially
incompressible tissue. In their study, Battaglioli and Kamm used a relatively simple custom-
made air piston indenter and optical displacement probe apparatus capable of sub-micron
resolution. However, the commercial release of the first AFM instrument some five years
later made more sophisticated nanoindentation studies possible. Braunsmann et al. evaluated
elasticity alterations in cryosections of LC and PPS in eyes with psuedoexfoliation (PEX)
disorder, reporting a marked softening of the ONH tissues in PEX affected eyes that could
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possibly render them more vulnerable to glaucoma damage (Braunsmann et al., 2012). Later
Leung et al. measured ex-vivo scleral load-displacement response in porcine eyes as a
function of IOP using a universal indentation testing machine in combination with a DLSR
camera fitted with a stereomicroscope (Leung et al., 2014). They found that scleral stiffness
correlated positively with IOP. These studies indicate the possibility for indentation testing
technology to perhaps one day provide valuable clinical measures of scleral stiffness in-vivo,
however this potential remains largely unrealized.

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3.2 In-vivo biomechanical characterization methods

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Ex-vivo studies have shown that the biomechanical properties of the sclera change with age
(s4.1), race (s4.1), glaucoma (s4.2), and myopia (s4.3). In-vivo measurements of these
properties could therefore potentially serve as valuable biomarkers to detect the earliest
stages of glaucoma damage and progressive myopia, helping to profile patients at risk of
developing these pathologies. At present, in-vivo measurements of scleral biomechanical
properties are, in principle, achievable through inverse methods that will be described below.

To fully assess the biomechanical behavior of the sclera in-vivo, one would need to alter one
of the known loads acting on the sclera while continuously monitoring the scleral tissue and
measuring its resulting local deformations. Only then can the stiffness (or biomechanical
properties) of the sclera – roughly speaking the ratio of load changes to deformations – be
estimated. It is important to realize that these ‘in-vivo biomechanical tests’ need to be
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performed within a safe physiological range in order avoid further progression of visual field
loss. Furthermore, and as for any controlled mechanical test, only one load should be altered
at a time while all others should remain constant. This last point represents a significant
clinical challenge.

Girard et al. developed a 3D tracking algorithm that can track displacements and strains of
the PPS following a change in IOP (Girard et al., 2013). This algorithm requires two optical
coherence tomography (OCT) volumes of the ONH: one is captured before a change in IOP
(referred to as the ‘undeformed’ volume) and the other is captured after a change in IOP
(referred to as the ‘deformed’ volume). Briefly, the tracking algorithm defines regions of
interest (ROIs or groups of voxels) in the undeformed OCT volume and then subjects them
to mechanical transformations (rigid translation, rigid rotation, stretch/compression and
shear) until they best match their co-localized ROIs in the deformed OCT volume (Fig 19).
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The output is a 3D displacement field from which tensile, compressive, and effective
(average) strain components can be derived and mapped. Using such a technique, Girard et
al. have reported in-vivo local displacement/strain mapping of the PPS following IOP
lowering by trabeculectomy in glaucoma subjects (Girard et al., 2016). They demonstrated
that the PPS was the tissue that exhibited the highest compressive strain relief (on average
10% for an IOP decrease of 12 mmHg) following IOP-lowering surgery by trabeculectomy.
This suggests that trabeculectomy is efficient at relieving a significant amount of PPS stress
that may otherwise fasten glaucoma progression.

Once scleral deformations (and the corresponding loads) are measured in-vivo, inverse
computational approaches can be used to assess the biomechanical properties of the sclera,
such as IFEM (Coudrillier et al., 2013), the virtual fields method (VFM) (Zhang et al.,
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2017), or the pre-fitting method (Sigal et al., 2014b), each having its own pros and cons.
However, in-vivo scleral biomechanics is still in its infancy, and the most pressing concern is
to further demonstrate and validate that the biomechanical properties of the sclera are indeed
measurable in-vivo with enough sensitivity and accuracy. Improvements in OCT hardware
(Sigal et al., 2014c), including adaptive optics, swept source, multiple wavelengths, phase-
sensitive technology, micro-imaging, and image processing techniques such as compensation
(Girard et al., 2011b), are likely to push the quality and availability of in-vivo biomechanical
measurements to the next level. Furthermore, other new imaging approaches such as

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Brillouin microscopy (Scarcelli et al., 2012; Yun and Chernyak, 2018) and shear wave
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elastography (Dikici et al., 2016) may hold great promise if they can be successfully applied
to the sclera, but they also exhibit limitations as the reported elastic moduli are typically off
by several orders of magnitude.

3.3 Scleral response to IOP

3.3.1 ECM response—Studies of the scleral ECM response to IOP can be divided into
two groups: response to acute and chronic IOP elevations. Following acute IOP elevations,
posterior bowing of the PPS and expansion of the scleral canal were observed in human (Ma
et al., 2019; Pavlatos et al., 2018), monkey (Girard et al., 2009a; Yang et al., 2009), porcine
(Pavlatos et al., 2018) and sheep (Voorhees et al., 2017) eyes. The effects were nonlinear,
with larger deformations at normal or sub-normal IOPs than at elevated IOPs, consistent
with a nonlinear deformation-induced stiffening resulting from inhomogeneously crimped
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collagen fibres (Fig 11). Although crimp had been postulated as the microstructural basis of
the nonlinear mechanical behavior of sclera (Grytz and Meschke, 2009), it is only recently
that it has been confirmed experimentally (Jan and Sigal, 2018). Jan et al. used PLM to
quantify and characterize how the collagen fibre crimp waviness (standard deviation of the
fibre orientation along a fibre bundle) of the LC and PPS in sheep eyes changes with IOP
(Jan and Sigal, 2018). It was found that the crimp waviness decreased with IOP.
Interestingly, at a normal IOP of 15 mmHg, both LC and PPS had about 75% recruited
fibres, with 25% ostensibly in reserve. Whether this applies to human eyes remains
unknown.

Posterior bowing of the PPS and expansion of the scleral canal were observed as well in
monkey eyes exposed to chronic IOP elevations (Bellezza et al., 2003; Yang et al., 2007).
Girard et al. estimated the scleral tangent modulus (a measure of scleral stiffness) of monkey
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eyes in which chronic IOP elevation was induced. They found that the tangent modulus
decreased at the earliest stage of IOP elevation but increased at moderate stages (Girard et
al., 2011c). Age-related decreases in collagen crimp are likely one of the mechanisms
underlying age-related stiffening of the sclera. Using PLM, Gogola et al. quantified collagen
crimp morphology (waviness, tortuosity, and amplitude) in 20 normal eyes of 20 human
donors, ranging in age from 0.08 (1 month) to 97 years (Gogola et al., 2018a). They found
that all crimp parameters decreased significantly with age, with significantly different age-
related decreases between regions. The crimp morphology of the limbus changed the most
drastically with age, such that it had the largest crimp in neonates, and among the smallest in
the elderly, suggesting that crimp in this region may play a role in eye development.
Stiffening of the sclera may also be caused by alterations in the content of scleral
glycosaminoglycan (Murienne et al., 2016; Murienne et al., 2015). The scleral ECM
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response to chronic IOP elevation in glaucoma has also been studied from both a
biomechanical and microstructural perspective by groups using scattering methods and
inflation testing in various combinations (Coudrillier et al., 2013; Coudrillier et al., 2012;
Danford et al., 2013; Jones et al., 2015; Pijanka et al., 2012). These studies are described in
detail in s4.2.

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3.3.2 Cellular response—In comparison to ECM less is known of the response of cells
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to eye pressure fluctuation, yet scleral mechanotransduction is an area of growing interest,

driven in major part by the need to clarify the sclera’s dynamic role in myopia and glaucoma
development. Fibroblasts have the potential to impact tissue-level mechanics by two routes:
(i) a slow, indirect route via their expression of ECM molecules (tissue remodeling), and (ii)
a faster, direct route through force-transduction to ECM from intracellular cytoskeletal
protein networks. Cultured human scleral fibroblasts have been shown to be sensitive to their
mechanical environment. Applied load alters the expression levels of ECM molecules (Cui
et al., 2004; Shelton and Rada, 2007) and promotes phenotypic changes (Qu et al., 2015) in-
vitro. Notably, high-magnitude and/or high-frequency load was shown to promote
differentiation of cultured human PPS fibroblasts into contractile myofibroblasts (Qu et al.,
2015), indicating that IOP fluctuations may have an important impact on fibroblast activity
in-vivo (Fig 20).
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Meanwhile, in-vivo animal studies have reported increased myofibroblast cell numbers in
the sclera of mice with experimental glaucoma (Oglesby et al., 2016) and tree-shrews with
induced myopia (Phillips and McBrien, 2004). It has been suggested that the latter
observation could explain recovery from axial elongation in the shrew eye that is too rapid to
be attributable to matrix remodeling (Phillips and McBrien, 2004). A role for scleral
myofibroblasts in regulation of eye size through tissue-level mechanical influence is further
supported by the identification of collagen-binding integrins in human (Hu et al., 2011) and
tree shrew (McBrien et al., 2006) derived scleral cell lines, and their demonstrated
modulation of tissue creep in collagen gels seeded with human fibroblasts in-vitro (Hu et al.,
2011). In light of these observations, it is interesting to note that, in contrast to the adult eye,
there is an absence of contractile scleral cells in primate eyes undergoing ocular growth
(fetal and neonatal stages) (Poukens et al., 1998).
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3.4 Scleral influence on ONH biomechanics

The scleral influence on ONH biomechanics has been studied using both generic and
specimen-specific models. An example of early generic numerical modeling is the work of
Bellezza et al., who studied the effects of the scleral canal size and shape and scleral
thickness on the biomechanical response of the ONH (Bellezza et al., 2000). They found
that, for a given level of IOP, a thinner sclera with a larger and more elliptical canal induced
higher stresses within the load-bearing connective tissues of the ONH. Expanding on this
early work, Sigal et al. developed a more realistic generic model that incorporated pre- and
post-laminar neural tissues, as well as the central retinal vessel and the pia mater (Sigal et
al., 2004). They found that the mean laminar strain was more sensitive to the scleral stiffness
than to the laminar stiffness, and was only weakly dependent on the stiffness of the neural
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tissues and pia mater. A schematic illustration of how the stiffness of the sclera affects the
IOP-induced ONH deformations is shown in Fig 21 (Sigal et al., 2011b).

To determine which anatomic and biomechanical factors most influenced the biomechanical
response of the ONH to acute changes in IOP, Sigal et al. parameterized the generic model
into 21 factors representing ONH tissue anatomies and material properties (Sigal et al.,
2005). The biomechanical response of the ONH tissues was quantified through a set of 29

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outcome measures, including peak and mean stress and strain within each tissue, and
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measures of geometric changes in ONH tissues, such as the cup to disc ratio. The five most
important determinants of ONH biomechanics (in rank order) were identified as: the
stiffness of the sclera, the size of the eye, IOP, the stiffness of the LC, and the thickness of
the sclera. This study was the first to highlight the importance of scleral stiffness on ONH
stress and deformation. However, it was performed with the simple, but limited, method of
varying one parameter at a time. Sigal et al. then extended this work by varying the
geometric and material parameters simultaneously (Sigal et al., 2009). They found that
independently increasing either the stiffness or thickness of the sclera leads to reduced
deformations being transmitted to the ONH. However, if the sclera is already quite stiff, then
changing its thickness has relatively little effect on ONH biomechanics and vice versa.

Girard et al. developed a generic model to investigate the effects of scleral collagen fibre
alignment on scleral and ONH mechanics (Girard et al., 2009b). The influence of the fibre
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concentration factor, a parameter used to control collagen fibre alignment along a preferred
fibre orientation, was also evaluated. Results showed that a circumferential fibre
organization in the sclera reduced scleral canal expansion, whereas the opposite was
observed with a meridional fibre organization. Perez et al. developed a generic model of the
corneoscleral shell to simulate the viscoelastic responses of the eye during micro-volumetric
changes (Perez et al., 2013). The viscoelastic properties of the cornea and the sclera,
including the instantaneous modulus, equilibrium modulus, and relaxation time constants,
were parameterized to examine their effects on IOP elevations at different rates of
volumetric changes. Results showed that all viscoelastic properties influenced the profile of
the dynamic IOP due to volumetric changes, and the relative significance of a specific
parameter was highly dependent on the rate of change. From this, they concluded that it is
necessary to better characterize the viscoelastic properties of ocular tissues.
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Ayyalasomayajula et al. developed a porohyperelastic model of the ONH to discern the

effects of interstitial and intracellular fluid pressure on the biomechanical response to IOP
(Ayyalasomayajula et al., 2016). A generic model of human eye was constructed and the
fluid permeabilities of the retina-Bruch’s-choroid complex, sclera, uveoscleral pathway, and
trabecular meshwork were parameterized. IOP, translaminar pressure gradient and strains in
the lamina were considered as computational outputs. As tissue permeability increased, both
IOP and translaminar pressure gradient decreased, resulting in decreased strains in the
lamina.

Specimen-specific models, which are based on the geometry and/or mechanical properties of
an individual eye, have been developed to more accurately evaluate ONH biomechanics.
Sigal et al. developed models of human posterior poles with specimen-specific geometries to
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explore the IOP-induced deformation of the ONH (Sigal et al., 2007, 2009; Sigal et al.,
2011a; Sigal et al., 2010). They found that the scleral stiffness was the most important
material parameter in determining the biomechanical insult to the lamina, matching the
findings from generic models (Sigal et al., 2005; Sigal et al., 2004, 2009). Norman et al.
developed human globe models that combined specimen-specific corneo-scleral shells and
generic ONHs to determine the effects of globe shape and size on ONH biomechanics
(Norman et al., 2010b). They found that the PPS thickness was the largest determinant of

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ONH biomechanics, with decreased thickness resulting in increased maximum strains in the
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LC and increased scleral canal radial displacement.

The state of the art in eye models now includes experimental measurements of collagen
microstructure. Coudrillier et al. developed a model with human specimen-specific scleral
geometry including specimen-specific details of sclera collagen anisotropy derived from
WAXS data, but with a generic lamina (Coudrillier et al., 2013). The non-linear material
stiffness used in this study was also specimen-specific and was determined through inverse
modeling. This model implemented a distributed fibre-based constitutive equation that
allowed them to study the influence of collagen fibre alignment and anisotropy through an
elegant parametric variation. They found that increasing fibre anisotropy in the PPS resulted
in a decrease in LC strains and scleral canal expansion, but also resulted in a posterior
deformation of the LC. Campbell et al. created a finite element model with a generic
geometry but non-linear and anisotropic material properties based on specimen-specific
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measurements of connective tissue volume fraction and collagen beam orientation obtained
from a μCT scan of a porcine eye (Campbell et al., 2015). They compared their full model to
a model of a homogenous isotropic lamina and an inhomogeneous isotropic lamina. They
found that the structure of the LC homogenizes the strain field within the lamina and that the
anisotropy of the collagen beams had little influence on the lamina strains. Zhang et al.
incorporated fibre organization information from postmortem human eyes within the ONH
models (Zhang et al., 2015a). The models predicted that the circumferential collagen fibres
in the PPS were effective in limiting LC strains and was able to reduce strain levels at the
scleral canal boundary. Instead, Voorhees et al. proposed an alternative fibre architecture for
the PPS, in which the scleral canal is supported primarily by long-running fibres oriented
tangentially to the canal (Voorhees et al., 2018). They found that the tangential arrangement
of fibres afforded better mechanical support to the tissues within the scleral canal as
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compared to a simple circumferential ring of fibres (Fig 22).

Importantly, the long fibre arrangement can also explain clinically observed behaviors of the
ONH that otherwise have found no explanation in other theories of PPS mechanics and
behavior, such as a contraction of the scleral canal under elevated IOP (or its counterpart, the
expansion under a decrease in IOP) (Poostchi et al., 2010; Strouthidis et al., 2011; Yang et
al., 2009; Yang et al., 2011). The precise nature of the PPS fibre organization remains an
issue of debate and intense study. However some consensus may be found across recent
studies. For example the presence of a subpopulation of long straight fibres (as postulated by
Vorhees et al.) that contribute to ONH canal support would be consistent with previous
WAXS studies that reported tangential linear “bands” emanating from the PPS pseudo-
annulus into the mid-posterior sclera (see s2.1.1) (Pijanka et al., 2012). Interestingly, more
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than a decade earlier Meek and Boote had envisaged a similar linear tangential model as one
possible explanation of the circumferential collagen fibrils in the corneo-scleral limbus
(Meek and Boote, 2004), although its biomechanical implications were not studied. The
model by Vorhees et al. suggests that long tangential fibres in the limbus would play a major
role in anterior segment mechanics.

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3.5 Scleral response to optic nerve traction

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The ‘standard’ biomechanical theory of glaucoma hypothesizes that elevated (or fluctuating)
IOP deforms the ONH tissues, including the LC, and that these deformations drive RGC
injury and death (resulting in blindness). However, IOP is not the only load deforming the
eye tissues. Studies that used OCT (Chang et al., 2017; Sibony, 2016; Wang et al., 2016a),
finite element modeling (FEM) (Wang et al., 2017b; Wang et al., 2016c) and MRI (Demer,
2016) all converge to the conclusion that horizontal eye movements considerably deform/
shear the ONH tissues (through the “strong” optic nerve [including its sheath] traction
imposed on the ONH), and that these deformations can be as large (or significantly larger)
than those induced by a substantial IOP elevation (Wang et al., 2016a; Wang et al., 2016c)
(Fig 23). Using FEM, Wang et al. were able to predict relatively large optic nerve traction
forces during eye movements, i.e., between 90 (abduction) and 150 mN (adduction), in the
same order of magnitude as extraocular muscle forces (Wang et al., 2017b). These forces are
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directly transmitted to the PPS and scleral flange via the dura, and may have important
consequences on the growth & remodeling behaviour of the posterior sclera and surrounding
tissues. For instance, optic nerve traction forces may partially explain: 1) the development
and progression of myopia; 2) the development of staphylomas (i.e. weak spots within the
scleral shell); 3) the presence of tilted discs in myopia; 4) intrachoroidal cavitations; and 5)
peripapillary atrophy (Jonas et al., 2016a; Wang et al., 2016b). Interestingly, these findings
may also relate to recently reported microstructural alterations found in the PPS in human
high myopia eyes (Markov et al., 2018) (see s4.3). Further, Wang et al. showed using
simulations that the presence of a stiff sclera (or a weaker, or more tortuous, optic nerve)
would, in theory, considerably reduce gaze-induced ONH deformations and may thus limit
the development of such conditions. This awaits experimental support.
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3.6 Scleral influence on the ocular pulse during the cardiac cycle
IOP is not a constant value, but instead is pulsatile in nature. The difference between systolic
and diastolic IOP has been defined as the ocular pulse amplitude (OPA) that ranges between
0.9 and 7.2 mm Hg in healthy subjects (Kaufmann et al., 2006). Generally, it has been well
accepted that the OPA is mainly caused by acute choroidal expansion due to the pulsatile
blood flow, and changes in the mechanical properties of the sclera could strongly influence
the OPA, which might in turn have implications for the development and progression of
glaucoma. To better understand how the sclera could influence the OPA, Jin et al. built a
comprehensive FEM of the eye that took into account blood pressure and choroidal swelling
during the cardiac cycle (Jin et al., 2018). The authors found that, during the cardiac cycle, a
change in arterial pressure resulted in choroidal expansion, which in turn induced a change
in IOP (the OPA) and ONH deformations. From diastole to systole, they found that
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choroidal expansion made the peripapillary retina move anteriorly, but both choroidal
expansion and the OPA made the prelamina and LC move posteriorly. The net result was
shearing of neural tissues in the neuroretinal rim. Interestingly, a stiffer sclera was shown to
result in a higher OPA, smaller pulse volume, larger diastole-to-systole ONH strains, and
larger neural tissue shear in the neuroretinal rim. This study is one of the first to suggest that
a stiff sclera may have generally negative medical consequences.

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3.7 Scleral response to cerebrospinal fluid pressure

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While several studies have addressed the effects of cerebrospinal fluid pressure (CSFP) on
the biomechanical environment within the scleral canal and the LC (Feola et al., 2017; Feola
et al., 2016; Hua et al., 2017; Jonas, 2011; Morgan et al., 1995; Sibony et al., 2011; Wang et
al., 2017a), little is known about the scleral response to CSFP. Fazio et al. used OCT
angiography to image and quantify the CSFP-induced ONH deformations in the living
human eye (Fazio et al., 2018). They found that the CSFP-induced strains in the PPS were
higher than those in the LC and retina. In addition, their results showed that the PPS strain
was negatively correlated with the retinal nerve fibre layer (RNFL) thickness. Hua et al.
extended a previously published numerical model of the ONH (Sigal et al., 2005) to include
CSFP and 23 other factors representing IOP, central retinal artery blood pressure, tissue
anatomy and mechanical properties, and constraints on the optic nerve (Hua et al., 2018). A
total of 8340 models were studied to predict factor influences on ONH deformations. The
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models predicted that the strongest influence of CSFP, more than twice that of IOP, was on
the rotation of the PPS. Fig 24 illustrates how increases in CSFP cause deformation of the
ONH.

4. Scleral changes with ageing and disease

4.1 Ageing
Numerous studies have shown that the structure and composition of the sclera change with
age, though the findings are sometimes conflicting, depending on the experimental methods,
age range, and animal species examined. Thickness measurements of fresh enucleated,
monkey eyes (Girard et al., 2009c), mouse eyes older than 1 year (Nguyen et al., 2013), and
human donor eyes (Coudrillier et al., 2012) have shown that the sclera thins with age.
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However, other histological thickness measurements of fixed human eyes did not vary with
age (Vurgese et al., 2012). In the human sclera, the number of elastin fibres decreases after
20 years of age (Watson and Young, 2004), while decorin and biglycan levels decrease after
age 40 (Rada et al., 2000). The cross-sectional area of scleral collagen fibrils increases with
age (Malik et al., 1992), which may be caused by age-related accumulation of advanced
glycation end-products (AGEs) (Schultz et al., 2008). Moreover, the mean collagen fibril
radius and intermolecular lateral spacing in the sclera also increases with age (Daxer et al.,
1998). Taken together, these findings point to both an accumulation of intermolecular, non-
enzymatic crosslinks and an increase in the number of tropocollagen molecules per fibril as
important mechanistic determinants of the observed stiffening of the sclera as it ages. WAXS
measurements of the collagen fibre structure by Coudrillier et al. in the posterior sclera of
human donor eyes measured a significant degree of collagen fibre alignment but no changes
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in the dominant collagen fibre orientation of the tissue with age (Coudrillier et al., 2015b)
(Coudrillier et al., 2015a). In contrast, SALS measurements by Vande Geest and coworkers
did not find age-related variations in the fibre structure of the human sclera (Danford et al.,
2013; Yan et al., 2011). The contrasting results may be associated with differences in the
way that these studies defined the degree of fibre alignment and in the specific regions of the
sclera they examined. Moreover, as mentioned, unlike WAXS measurements using SALS
are not specific to collagen and may include the alignment of elastin fibres.

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The mechanical behavior of the sclera has been measured using a variety of methods in
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human, monkey and mouse eyes, and the studies have consistently found a stiffening effect
with age. Uniaxial strip tests of human sclera reported that the elastic modulus increased
with age and is different in the anterior and posterior regions (Friberg and Lace, 1988)
(Geraghty et al., 2012). Inflation tests of the posterior scleral shell of monkey eyes (Girard et
al., 2009c), canine eyes (Palko et al., 2016) and human eyes (Coudrillier et al., 2012; Fazio
et al., 2014a) all observed an increased stiffness of the pressure-strain response with older
age. The stiffness increases more rapidly with age for eyes from donors of African descent
(Fazio et al., 2014b). How this latter observation might link to racial differences in
susceptibility to scleral-involved ocular diseases such as myopia and glaucoma remains an
important unanswered question. Pressure-displacement response measured in inflation tests
of mouse eyes was also significantly stiffer in older compared to younger mouse eyes
(Myers et al., 2010a).
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Various studies have applied computational modeling to analyze the inflation tests to
estimate the mechanical properties of the sclera and collagen fibres and their variations with
age. The stress-strain relationship of the sclera was described by anisotropic hyperelastic
models that represent the tissue as a distribution of stiff collagen and elastin fibres in a
compliant isotropic matrix. The latter represents contributions from the non-fibrous
components of the tissue, such as proteoglycans, and the effects of crosslinking. Girard et al.
(Girard et al., 2009c) and Grytz et al. (Grytz et al., 2014) applied the models to fit the elastic
properties of the fibres and matrix, and the parameters for the distribution of fibre orientation
to the full-field measurements of the inflation tests of monkey and human eyes. Coudrillier
et al. (Coudrillier et al., 2013) applied WAXS measurements directly to describe the
collagen fibre structure and fit the elastic properties of the collagen fibres and matrix to the
inflation tests of human eyes. All three studies showed that the shear modulus of the soft
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matrix material increased with age. The increase in matrix stiffness may be caused by the
accumulation of AGEs with age and other age-related changes in the matrix microstructure
that may affect the collagen interfibrillar interactions. For example, Murienne et al.
(Murienne et al., 2016) showed that removing glycosaminoglycans in the posterior sclera of
human donor eyes decreased the scleral thickness and increased its stiffness under inflation
testing. Grytz et al. (Grytz et al., 2014) also reported a smaller collagen crimp angle
parameter in the model employed by decreased with age. Both the larger matrix stiffness and
smaller collagen crimp angle lead to a stiffer stress-strain response in the low-pressure
region of an inflation test, resulting in a more linear stress-strain response. The findings for
the collagen fibre stiffness were more varied. Girard et al. (Girard et al., 2009c) found that
the strain-stiffening behavior of the scleral collagen fibres in monkeys increases with age,
indicating that the sclera stiffens more quickly with strain in older animals. Grytz et al.
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(Grytz et al., 2014) reported that the collagen fibre modulus decreased with age in European-
derived donor eyes, while there was no statistically significant age effects in fibre modulus
of African-derived donor eyes. Furthermore, Coudrillier et al. found that the fibre modulus
increased with age in human diabetic donors but not in those without diabetes (Coudrillier et
al., 2015a, b). However, the precise relationship between ageing, diabetes and glaucoma
remains to be established.

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The gross shape of the sclera is also altered by ageing. Recently, using OCT, Tun et al. found
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that the shape of the sclera at its boundary with the ONH changes as a function of age (Tun
et al., 2018). On average, the anterior surface of the PPS had a characteristic v-shaped
configuration with its peak pointing towards the orbit. The range, however, varied from an
inverted v-shaped (but with a relatively flat profile) to a more pronounced v-shaped
configuration. Interestingly, the v-shaped configuration was more prominent with increasing
age, worse vision, thinner cornea, greater axial length, thinner peripapillary choroid, and
deeper anterior LC (Fig 25). Such changes in PPS shape with age could have a significant
impact on the overall biomechanical environment of the ONH, and therefore warrant further
investigation.

4.2 Glaucoma
Multiple studies have shown that the collagen structure and mechanical behavior of the PPS
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is different in glaucoma human donor eyes and animal models subjected to long-term IOP
elevation. Significant regional differences have been measured in the collagen fibre
organization in human eyes by WAXS (Coudrillier et al., 2015c; Pijanka et al., 2012) and
SALS (Danford et al., 2013). Using WAXS, Pijanka et al. reported a decrease in the degree
of fibre alignment in the superior/temporal and inferior/nasal quadrants of the human PPS,
while the remaining two quadrants showed an increase (Pijanka et al., 2012). A later study
with a larger number of specimens showed that the collagen structure in the PPS overall
becomes more uniform as the level of optic nerve damage changed from normal to glaucoma
undamaged to glaucoma damaged (Coudrillier et al., 2015c). SALS measurements showed
that a parameter related to the degree of collagen alignment of the PPS of glaucoma eyes
was greater than in normal eyes in the nasal region but smaller in the superior region
(Danford et al., 2013). The collagen structure of the PPS also became less organized in
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mouse eyes with glaucoma. Pijanka et al. measured a lower degree of collagen alignment in
bead-injected glaucoma mouse eyes compared to the contralateral control eye (Pijanka et al.,
2014). Cone-Kimball et al. performed detailed TEM evaluation of the collagen structure in
bead-glaucoma mouse eyes and reported an increase in the number and the cross-section
area of collagen fibrils. There was also an increase in the number smaller diameter fibrils
and fewer larger diameter fibrils (Cone-Kimball et al., 2013).

The mechanical behavior of the PPS becomes stiffer with glaucoma. Nguyen et al.
developed an inflation test method for mouse eyes that used two-dimensional DIC to track
the deformation of the scleral edge (Nguyen et al., 2013). They observed a stiffer pressure-
strain response in the PPS, in both the meridional and circumferential directions, in bead-
glaucoma mouse eyes compared to the contralateral controls. Downs et al. used uniaxial
strip tests to measure the stress relaxation behavior of the PPS of normal and early-glaucoma
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monkey eyes and found a stiffer equilibrium (long-time) elastic modulus in the early-
glaucoma group (Downs et al., 2005). The increased scleral stiffness in early-glaucoma
monkey eyes was later confirmed by Girard et al. in more detailed inflation tests with ESPI
to measure the full three-dimensional deformation field of the posterior sclera (Girard et al.,
2011c). The authors applied IFEM to fit the parameters of a hyperelastic distributed fibre
model to the surface deformation field and reported a larger elastic modulus and structural
stiffness. Coudrillier et al. applied inflation testing with DIC to measure the full-field

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deformation response of the posterior sclera of human donor eyes and found that diagnosed
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glaucoma patients, both with and without optic nerve damage, exhibited a stiffer pressure-
strain response in the meridional direction and a smaller ratio of meridional to
circumferential strain in the PPS (Coudrillier et al., 2012). These findings were consistent
with WAXS measurements indicating a less aligned fibre structure in the various regions of
the PPS (Pijanka et al., 2012). IFEM showed that the matrix shear modulus and collagen
fibre stiffness on average increased as the level of optic nerve damage changed from
undamaged to glaucoma undamaged and finally glaucoma damaged (Coudrillier et al.,
2015c). However, the effect was not statistically significant because of the large variability.

Taken together, experimental studies suggest that a chronic increase in IOP from the
homeostatic baseline causes remodeling of the collagen structure of the sclera at the same
time as optic nerve damage. The effect is individually variable and may be influenced by the
baseline structure and mechanical properties of the eye. The pressure-strain inflation
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response of the peripapillary sclera are stiffer in C57BL/6 (B6) than in albino CD1 mouse
strain, which has a longer and wider eye and thinner PPS. In bead-injected glaucoma
experiments, the optic nerve of CD1 mice were more susceptible than B6 to RGC axonal
death and the sclera of bead-glaucoma CD1 eyes exhibited a significantly larger stiffening
effect than those of C57BL6 (Cone et al., 2010). It remains unclear, however, whether a
stiffer scleral response to pressure is protective of glaucoma. Mice with a mutation in
collagen 8A2 exhibited a larger eye and stiffer scleral response to IOP and were less
susceptible to RGC axon death than the wild-type B6 control (Steinhart et al., 2012).
However, stiffening the sclera of CD1 mice by collagen crosslinking with glyceraldehyde
led to greater susceptibility of RGC damage (Kimball et al., 2014). Efforts to directly
measure strains in the ONH in mouse models may show the combined effects of variations
in eye length, regional scleral thickness and scleral stiffness on the ONH strains (Nguyen et
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al., 2018; Nguyen et al., 2017). More detailed modeling is needed to evaluate the combined
effects of these factors on the stresses experienced by the glial and axonal tissues of the
ONH (Myers et al., 2011).

4.3 Myopia
Myopia is the most common refractive condition, affecting about 22% of the current world
population (Holden et al., 2016). In a normal emmetropic eye with clear vision, light rays
entering the eye focus precisely on the retina (Fig 26A). However, in a myopic eye light rays
focus in front of the retina, causing the typical blurry vision in myopia (Fig 26B). Generally,
myopia first occurs in school-age children and typically progresses until age 20. Juvenile-
onset myopia is typically characterized by an elongated posterior scleral shell (Fig 26C).
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Human and animal studies have confirmed the existence of a common mechanism across
species that uses visual cues to actively match the axial length of the eye to its focal length
(Howlett and McFadden, 2007; Norton and Siegwart, 1995; Siegwart and Norton, 2011;
Wallman and Winawer, 2004; Wildsoet, 1997). This vision-guided, active process is called
emmetropization. Similar to humans, many animals are hyperopic at birth (i.e. the light
focuses behind the eye) and the refractive error diminishes as the eye emmetropizes. In
animals, eye size can be experimentally modulated by shifting the focal plane posterior or

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anterior to the retina using negatively or positively powered lenses, making the eye
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respectively myopic or hyperopic (Norton et al., 2010; Schaeffel et al., 1988; Siegwart and
Norton, 2010). Increasing evidence from animal studies suggests that the emmetropization
process relies on a feedback mechanism that alters scleral remodeling to match the axial
length of the eye to its optical system. Fig 27 illustrates the emmetropization process as a
mechanism involving the detection of the visual stimuli at the retina, signaling from retina to
the sclera and modulation of scleral remodeling and axial elongation; which in turn
modulates the visual stimulus and closes the loop.

The prevalence of myopia has dramatically increased over the past 60 years and has risen
from 20% to nearly 90% in some Asian populations (Dolgin, 2015). Several visual stimuli
have been identified that alter the refractive development the eyes including axial defocus,
peripheral defocus, form deprivation, light intensity, contrast and light chromaticity (Ashby
et al., 2009; Gawne et al., 2017; Liu and Wildsoet, 2011; Ohlendorf and Schaeffel, 2009;
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Rucker and Wallman, 2012; Sherman et al., 1977; Wallman et al., 1978). While the exact
cause of the epidemic increase in myopia is still unclear, accelerated scleral remodeling is
thought to be a common factor across all visual stimuli that may cause myopia (Grytz,
2018).

Several changes in scleral composition and structure have been identified in human myopia
and experimental animal myopia. In terms of composition, notable changes reported include
lower hyaluronan and sulfated glycosaminoglycan levels (Moring et al., 2007), upregulated
enzymatic degradation (Guggenheim and McBrien, 1996; Guo et al., 2013), downregulated
collagen type I synthesis (Gentle et al., 2003) and downregulation of aggrecan (Siegwart and
Strang, 2007). While myopia occurs early in life and is characterized by an elongated eye
size, accelerated tissue growth is not the cause of myopia. Scleral growth ceases very early
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during axial development of the eye. Scleral volume increases from birth to the end of the
second year of life but remains unchanged thereafter in both normal eyes (Shen et al., 2016)
and eyes that develop myopia (Jonas et al., 2014, 2016b). Similar to human myopia, the
amount of sclera changes little (3–5% reduction in dry weight) during experimental myopia
in tree shrews (McBrien et al., 2001; McBrien et al., 2000; Moring et al., 2007). In human
eyes, scleral thickness decreases significantly with increasing axial length (Shen et al.,
2015a). In severe cases of high myopia, the sclera thickness was reported to be only 31% of
a normal sclera (Cheng et al., 1992). Severe scleral thinning in high myopia can lead to the
formation of posterior scleral staphyloma. Animal studies have confirmed that the sclera
thins during experimental myopia (McBrien et al., 2001; Norton and Rada, 1995). These
tissue-level observations suggest that not accelerated scleral growth, but another distinct
mechanism underlies axial elongation in myopia: scleral remodeling. Scleral remodeling is
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understood as a mechanism that involves the rearrangement of existing material due to

micro-deformations that are (nearly) volume-conserving at the tissue-scale, while scleral
growth is a mechanism that changes the amount (volume) of the sclera.

Animal studies have revealed changes in scleral ultrastructure during myopia development.
After experimental myopia induction, a significant diameter thinning of scleral collagen
fibrils has been observed in rabbits (Lin et al., 2018) and tree shrews (McBrien et al., 2001).
While these ultrastructural changes occur quickly (2 weeks) in rabbits with lens induced

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myopia, no significant changes were seen in a similar time frame in tree shrews. Instead,
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only after prolonged lens-induced myopia (~3 months) was a significant reduction in
collagen fibril diameter seen in the shrew. This reduction in collagen fibril diameter is
consistent with ultrastructural observations in highly myopic human eyes (Curtin et al.,
1979). Based on inverse computational models, Grytz and Siegwart reported that the crimp
of scleral collagen fibres increases during the development of myopia (Grytz and Siegwart,
2015). Meanwhile, experimental evidence of changes to the bulk fibre organization of scleral
collagen in human high myopia has recently come from WAXS studies. Markov et al.
reported changes in the posterior collagen fibre alignment, in which the normally well-
conserved circumferential PPS fibre structure unravels towards a more radial alignment
(Markov et al., 2018) (Fig 28). Further studies are required to ascertain whether these
changes reflect tissue remodeling relating directly to axial lengthening of the sclera. A
further possibility is that they could point to a mechanical adaption to fluid pressure/eye
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movement forces that will be larger in an elongated myopic eye (Markov et al., 2018). If and
how such scleral microstructural changes might relate to optic nerve traction forces (see
s3.5) and increased risk of retinal atrophy and staphyloma in highly myopic eyes is
unknown.

Siegwart and Norton reported the first vision-induced change in scleral biomechanics,
showing that the scleral creep rate increases during experimentally induced myopia
(Siegwart and Norton, 1999). The creep rate represents the rate by which the sclera stretches
while it is subjected to a constant load. The creep rate was found to respectively increase/
decrease while the axial elongation rate was experimentally increased/decreased and myopia
induced/recovered (Fig 29). Similar to the changes in scleral creep rate, the so-called
transition or locking strain was found to increase/decrease during myopia development/
recovery (Grytz and Siegwart, 2015). The transition strain is directly related to the collagen
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fibre crimp and represents the strain level at which the scleral collagen fibres straighten (Jan
and Sigal, 2018) (see Fig 11). Interestingly a similar increase in scleral transition strain was
found by Murienne et al. after the digestion of glycosaminoglycans in pig sclera (Murienne
et al., 2015). Collectively, these finding illustrate the tight connection between changes in
scleral composition, ultrastructure, biomechanics and scleral remodeling. More recently,
Levy et al. identified a profound cyclic softening effect in tree shrew sclera after inducing
experimental myopia (Levy et al., 2018). They also reported that scleral crosslinking using
genipin inhibits the process, providing support for the notion of scleral crosslinking as a
potential myopia control therapy (see s5.2).

5. Scleral therapies
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5.1 Surgical treatments

In the context of this review, relevant surgical treatments may be broadly divided into two
groups: (i) those that justify surgery of the sclera as a means to access and/or
biomechanically alter neighboring ocular structures for clinical benefit (referred to here as
“collateral scleral surgeries”); and (ii) those involving deliberate and targeted mechanical
alteration of the sclera itself (classified here as “primary scleral surgeries”).

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5.1.1 Collateral scleral surgeries—Scleral surgery to treat presbyopia (loss of focal

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range) has been explored for more than two decades (reviewed in (Hipsley et al., 2018)).
Surgical approaches include anterior ciliary sclerotomy (radial incisions in the sclera
overlying the ciliary muscle) (Hamilton et al., 2002), implantation of scleral expansion
bands (Davidson et al., 2016; Malecaze et al., 2001), and anterior scleral laser ablative
surgeries (Hipsley et al., 2017; Lin and Mallo, 2003). All these approaches have been shown
to be effective in reversing presbyopia to varying degrees by increasing the elasticity of the
eye’s accommodative apparatus. However inconsistent clinical outcomes, treatment effect
regression and incidences of anterior ischemia have led to the justification of scleral surgery
as a presbyopia treatment being called into question. Nevertheless, while controversial it
remains an active area of research (Glasser, 2008; Hipsley et al., 2018). Scleral buckle (SB)
treatment to repair retinal detachment is another example of an enduring scleral surgical
procedure that continues to evolve. A silicon sponge, rubber or plastic “buckle” element is
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strapped to the eyeball to indent the sclera at the retinal detachment site, promoting
reattachment and healing (Park et al., 2018). Over the past decade, the burgeoning of ocular
biomechanics as a scientific discipline has positively impacted SB technique development.
For example, computational modelling approaches are continuing to guide surgeons on
buckle design and usage through the identification of factors (e.g. buckle size/shape, strap
tightness, ocular biometry, IOP) that most strongly influence the clinical outcome (Ge et al.,
2017; Lanchares et al., 2016; Wang et al., 2007). Increasingly, SB is being combined with
pars plana vitrectomy (PPV), a procedure where a small number of scleral holes (typically
three) are created to facilitate vitreous removal (Park et al., 2018).

Anterior scleral surgery in the form of trabeculectomy, scleral laser trabeculoplasty (SLT)
and drainage shunt implantation has long been a clinical mainstay of IOP reduction in
treatment of medically uncontrolled glaucoma (Bovee and Pasquale, 2017), and here too
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techniques are progressing. The recent adoption of micropulse lasers for SLT (Yu et al.,
2019), new shunt implant designs and materials (Chen and Gedde, 2018) and adjunct tools
such as collagen matrix implants, fibrin adhesives, and amniotic membrane transplants (Lu
et al., 2018) are all examples of emerging strategies to suppress fibrosis, scarring and other
side-effects of glaucoma drainage surgery.

5.1.2 Primary scleral surgeries—Surgical reinforcement of the posterior sclera is a

viable but highly debated option to manage pathologic myopia, and is usually indicated in
eyes with associated macular changes and/or staphyloma (Ohno-Matsui and Jonas, 2018).
The procedure involves inserting a strip of (usually) donor sclera material under the
separated extraorbital muscles and pushing it down deeply towards the posterior pole. The
ends of the strip are then crossed over the medial rectus muscle and sutured to the sclera on
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the medial aspect of the superior and inferior recti (Thompson, 1990). One source of
controversy stems from difficulty in obtaining and storing donor tissue, and this is driving
current efforts to develop biocompatible artificial materials and devices (Yuan et al., 2016).
Meanwhile, established and emerging adjunct procedures such as patching therapy (Shen et
al., 2015b) and collagen crosslinking (Xue et al., 2018) (see s5.2) are being combined with
surgical reinforcement in an effort to improve efficacy and safety. Mechanical alteration of
the posterior sclera is also being considered as an alternative neuroprotective strategy for

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glaucoma patients who respond poorly to IOP lowering (Quigley and Cone, 2013;
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Strouthidis and Girard, 2013). One possible surgical approach could be to locally stiffen the
scleral tissue around the ONH, for example by the insertion of a biocompatible (e.g.
titanium) ring implant into the PPS and/or adjacent tissues. While there is not yet any
experimental evidence to support the viability of such an approach, recent computational
modelling results (Soh, 2016) show that, theoretically at least, it could be one effective route
to reducing IOP-driven scleral canal expansion and LC strain (Fig. 30).

5.2 Scleral crosslinking

Collagen crosslinking has been used in multiple settings to mechanically stabilize
collagenous tissues and hydrogels (Lima et al., 2009). It is thought that biomechanical
weakening of the cornea is the underlying cause of keratoconus (Hayes et al., 2007). Corneal
crosslinking using riboflavin and ultraviolet A light has been proposed and successfully used
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to mechanically stabilize the cornea in keratoconus patients since 1998 (Raiskup et al., 2015;
Wollensak et al., 2003). A single treatment session of corneal crosslinking has been shown
to slow or arrest keratoconus progression and achieve long-term stabilization of the
condition (10 years) with a good safety profile (Raiskup et al., 2015). In section 4.3 we
discussed several structural and biomechanical changes that occur during the development of
myopia, including scleral creep rate, collagen fibre crimping and re-alignment, and cyclic
softening (Grytz and Siegwart, 2015; Levy et al., 2018; Markov et al., 2018; Siegwart and
Norton, 1999). These changes suggest that the sclera is biomechanically weakened during
the development of myopia. Collagen crosslinking has therefore been proposed as a
potential treatment for myopia, in particular, as a treatment for progressive myopia
(Wollensak and Iomdina, 2008a). Progressive myopia is one of the leading causes of
blindness worldwide without an accepted treatment option that can slow or halt progressive
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scleral remodeling (Buch et al., 2004; Cotter et al., 2006; Green et al., 1986; Krumpaszky et
al., 1999; Munier et al., 1998). Given the lack of treatment options available and the
morbidity of progressive myopia, an effective clinical solution is becoming increasingly
necessary.

Collagen crosslinks accumulate naturally in the sclera during throughout life (Schultz et al.,
2008). Based on computational model predictions, Grytz and El Hamdaoui proposed that the
natural accumulation of collagen crosslinks decreases the susceptibility to scleral
remodeling and myopia with age (Grytz and El Hamdaoui, 2017). McBrien and Norton have
shown that preventing natural collagen crosslinking doubles the axial elongation rate during
lens-induced myopia in juvenile tree shrews, suggesting that collagen crosslinks modulate
scleral remodeling in myopia (McBrien and Norton, 1994). Wollensak and colleagues
reported that the biomechanical changes introduced by scleral crosslinking remain effective
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for up to 8 months in rabbits (Wollensak and Iomdina, 2008b, 2009). Scleral crosslinking
was shown to reduce collagen fibril crimping (Zyablitskaya et al., 2017) supporting the idea
that crosslinking can counteract biomechanical changes that were seen in experimental
myopia (see s4.3). Wang and Corpuz demonstrated that weekly scleral crosslinking using
sub-Tenon’s injections of genipin can slow experimental myopia over 21 days in guinea pig
eyes (Wang and Corpuz, 2015). However, that study did not incorporate a sham injected
group. Garcia et al. have shown that sham injection behind the sclera can a have a significant

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 Boote et al. Page 28

effect on axial development and should, therefore, be considered when delivering crosslink
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agent via sub-Tenon’s injections (Garcia et al., 2017). Two groups have reported that scleral
crosslinking using riboflavin and ultraviolet-A radiation can also slow progression of
experimental myopia by increasing scleral biomechanical strength in guinea pigs (Dotan et
al., 2016; Liu et al., 2016). Recently, Lin et al. showed successful slowing of experimental
myopia using glyceraldehyde for scleral crosslinking in rabbits (Lin et al., 2019).
Interestingly, Chu et al. had earlier also performed sub-Tenon’s injection using
glyceraldehyde in the guinea pig model of myopia (Chu et al., 2016) but, in contrast to the
study by Lin et al., they reported that scleral crosslinking had no effect on the development
of myopia despite biomechanical strengthening of the sclera. Chu et al. (similar to most
studies) used only one dose of their crosslink agent, which may explain the controversial
result. Recently, Grytz et al. reported the first investigation of dose-dependent effects of
scleral crosslinking on myopia development (Grytz et al., 2018). This study used sub-
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Tenon’s injections of genipin in tree shrews, confirming that scleral crosslinking can slow
axial elongation in myopia and that the effect is dose dependent. Furthermore, a sham effect
of sub-Tenon’s injections on axial elongation was also seen in the study of Grytz et al.,
confirming the previous finding of Garcia et al. (Garcia et al., 2017).

Artificial crosslinking can be induced in multiple ways, where each method has its benefits
and disadvantages. Maintaining a balance between minimizing cytotoxic effects and invasive
operative procedures, while preserving treatment efficacy, will be essential to identify and
optimize a clinically deliverable method of scleral crosslinking. The classical approach is
based on using ultraviolet A light-activated riboflavin. The clear advantage of a light
activated crosslink agent is the ability to use the light to localize the treatment to the area of
interest. A major challenge of this strategy remains the safe delivery of the light to the
sclera, which currently requires the operative exposure of the sclera (Wollensak and
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Iomdina, 2009; Wollensak et al., 2005). Current scleral crosslinking techniques using
riboflavin/ultraviolet A light were found to be not safe enough (Wang et al., 2015). To
improve efficacy and reduce retinal toxicity, other light wavelengths such as blue light
(Zhang et al., 2015b) have been proposed and continue to be evaluated.

An alternative approach is to use crosslink agents that don’t require light activation. The
most commonly used scleral crosslinking agents from this category are two low-cytotoxic
compounds: glyceraldehyde and genipin. Both agents have been successfully used to slow
myopia progression, as mentioned above. Genipin is a naturally occurring organic
compound and one of the best characterized low-cytotoxic crosslinking agents (Campbell et
al., 2017; Fessel et al., 2014). Campbell et al. have shown that a much lower concentration
of genipin is required to achieve a comparable scleral stiffening effect to that obtainable
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using alternative lowcytotoxicity agents such as glyceraldehyde (7-fold) or methylglyoxal

(30-fold) (Campbell et al., 2017). The main advantage of using a crosslink agent that doesn’t
require light activation is the less invasive delivery of the agent via sub-Tenon’s injections.
However, there are also disadvantages in using non-light activated agents. For example,
currently there is no method to limit the crosslinking procedure to the sclera alone. Grytz et
al. reported that the genipin solution can diffuse across the limbal boundary during the sub-
Tenon’s injections, crosslinking not only the sclera but also the cornea (Grytz et al., 2018).
All studies that showed successful slowing of myopia progression using glyceraldehyde or

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 Boote et al. Page 29

genipin required repeated injections of the crosslink agents (typically 3 to 5 times or weekly
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injections). The development of an improved and sustained delivery strategy will be

essential for a potential application in the clinic. Moreover, while no study has reported any
major safety concerns or alarming adverse effects, the safety of these agents is still under
evaluation.

Scleral crosslinking has also been proposed as a potential treatment strategy for glaucoma,
but was found to increase glaucoma damage in a mouse model when the entire sclera was
crosslinked (Kimball et al., 2014). However, Coudrillier et al. have shown that restricting
scleral crosslinking to the PPS region has a beneficial effect by reducing the magnitude of
biomechanical strains within the LC (Coudrillier et al., 2016). Consequently, localized
scleral crosslinking may find utilization in glaucoma axonal neuroprotection, but this
potential treatment modality requires further investigation and remains unproven.
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6. Future directions and conclusions

The structure and biomechanical performance of the sclera is coming under increasing focus
by researchers whose work is defining with more clarity the tissue’s central importance in
common, sight-threatening ocular pathologies such as glaucoma and progressive myopia.
Classical views of the sclera as a largely static, quiescent tissue are being replaced by a
growing awareness of its dynamic nature in terms of ECM growth and remodeling
mechanisms and cellular biomechanical responses over wide-ranging time scales.
Increasingly comprehensive understanding of the multiple, interacting biomechanical loads
on the sclera (including eye movement forces and fluid pressures) is leading to more
physiologically relevant combined experimental and computational models. Such models are
required to investigate scleral-related disease and its association with ageing - a need that
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will become more pressing as the global population continues to age.

Going forward it is certain that we will see more notable advances in the broad and fertile
area of scleral research. It is likely that new imaging modalities will be leveraged to
visualize further aspects of scleral hierarchical structure and cell-ECM interactions, similar
to what we are seeing in corneal research with the recent application of methods such as
third harmonic generation (Jay et al., 2015) and coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (Kaji
et al., 2017) multiphoton imaging. We can also expect to see bioimaging methods
increasingly combined with quantitative tools such as Fourier methods (Pijanka et al., 2018)
to provide more representative ECM and cellular structural inputs for computational
modeling (Fig 31).

In the future there will likely be a continuation of the current trend towards 3D imaging
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techniques (Feneck et al., 2018; Yang et al., 2018b) and the unification of ocular structure
data in an effort to gain a more holistic view of ocular behaviour through whole eye
biomechanical modelling (Voorhees et al., 2017; Whitford et al., 2016; Zhou et al., 2019a;
Zhou et al., 2019b). It is possible that we will also see a future shift towards in-vivo
biomechanical modelling approaches, particularly if urgently needed progress can be made
on characterization of ECM structure in the living eye. Indeed, quantitatively mapping
collagen fibre organization in-vivo in human subjects may prove critical to improve

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 Boote et al. Page 30

glaucoma diagnosis and management. Recently, PSOCT has been used to evaluate the
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volumetric microstructural tissue organization in rat PPS in-vivo (Fig 32). This was done by
taking advantage of the birefringence caused by collagen fibres (Baumann et al., 2014). In
that study, a PPS fibre ring was observed, which was validated against conventional
histology and found consistent with other ex-vivo studies (Girard et al., 2011a). Translating
PSOCT to the clinic could become feasible in the future, however significant challenges
such as loss of signal quality when imaging deep tissues must be overcome.

The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) computing and its pervasion into vision research will
likely accelerate in future, and this could result in further clinical benefits for scleral-related
disease diagnosis and prognosis – perhaps most immediately in the glaucoma clinic. For
instance, AI algorithms have already been developed to enhance, denoise, and automatically
segment the PPS (along with other connective and neural tissues) in OCT images of the
ONH in order to extract important in-vivo structural information. The performance of such
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algorithms is already on a par with that of human experts (Fig 33). Other AI algorithms have
used the textural and structural information (Devalla et al., 2018a; Devalla et al., 2018b;
Girard et al., 2011b) of the sclera (along that of other tissues) in OCT images of the ONH to
provide a glaucoma diagnostic power that could challenge current gold-standard glaucoma
parameters such as RNFL thickness (Girard et al., 2018). In the future, we are likely to see
the emergence of other AI algorithms that will use structural and biomechanical information
about the sclera to help predict which patients are at risk of developing visual field loss from
glaucoma.

In terms of scleral treatments, an increasing emphasis on non-invasive therapies is probable.

The success of collagen crosslinking to treat corneal biomechanical problems (e.g.
keratoconus) has provided much incentive for research into scleral crosslinking (see s5.2).
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However, while notable progress has been made using animal models there remain many
unanswered questions in terms of safety, efficacy and mode of delivery that are currently
blocking clinical translation. Another potentially productive scleral therapeutic route
currently still in its infancy is stem cell treatment. Scleral reinforcement via the application
of mesenchymal stem cells is being evaluated as a potential treatment for progressive
myopia (Janowski et al., 2015). Cell-mediated strategies involving both direct structural
enhancement of the scleral stroma and indirect routes via stimulation of dopamine are being
considered (Fig 34). Meanwhile, increasing success in the search for novel myopia genes is
coming from the widening use of big data analyses (Flitcroft et al., 2018). These studies are
already providing potential targets that could be leveraged in future towards gaining control
of myopic scleral elongation through, for example, gene therapy. Given the already
substantial and growing burden of scleral-related eye disorder worldwide, the success of
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such approaches will become even more important in the future.

Acknowledgements
The assistance of Petar Markov in preparation of figures for this document is gratefully acknowledged. The authors
are thankful for funding support under the following grant numbers. CB: Fight For Sight Project Grant 1360, NIH
Grant R01EY021500 (subaward 2003284605), MRC Program Grant MR/K000837/1 and various STFC Facility
Access Awards; IAS: NIH grants R01-EY023966, R01-EY028662 and P30-EY008098; RG: NIH grants R01-
EY026588, R01-EY027759, Eye Sight Foundation of Alabama and Research to Prevent Blindness; TDN: Public
Health Service Research Grant EY021500 and NSF Grant CMMI-1727104; MJAG: MOE Singapore Academic

Prog Retin Eye Res. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2021 January 01.
 Boote et al. Page 31

Research Funds (Tier 2: R-397-000-280-112 & R-397-000-308-112, Tier 1: R-397-000-294-114), NMRC Grant
NMRC/STAR/0023/2014.
Author Manuscript

List of abbreviations
AFM Atomic Force Microscopy

AI Artificial Intelligence

CCD Charge-Coupled Device

CCT Central Corneal Thickness

CSFP Cerebrospinal Fluid Pressure

DIC Digital Image Correlation

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ECM Extracellular Matrix

ESPI Electronic Speckle Pattern Interferometry

FEM Finite Element Modelling

GAG Glycosaminoglycan

IFEM Inverse Finite Element Modelling

IOP Intraocular Pressure

LC Lamina Cribrosa

MPM Multiphoton Microscopy

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MRI Magnetic Resonance Imaging

OCT Optical Coherence Tomography

ONH Optic Nerve Head

OPA Ocular Pulse Amplitude

PG Proteoglycan

PLM Polarized Light Microscopy

PPS Peripapillary Sclera

PPV Pars Plana Vitrectomy

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PSOCT Polarization-Sensitive Optical Coherence Tomography

QFDE Quick Freeze Deep Etch

RGC Retinal Ganglion Cell

RNFL Retinal Nerve Fibre Layer

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 Boote et al. Page 32

ROI Region of Interest

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SALS Small-Angle Light Scattering

SAS Subarachnoid Space

SB Scleral Buckle

SC Schlemm’s Canal

SEM Scanning Electron Microscopy

SHG Second Harmonic Generation

SPLM Structured Polarized Light Microscopy

SLT Scleral Laser Trabeculoplasty

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TEM Transmission Electron Microscopy

TPF Two-Photon Fluorescence

VFM Virtual Fields Method

WAXS Wide-Angle X-ray Scattering

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Figure 1:
Overview of scleral morphometry and connective tissue structure. A) Approximate wall
thickness and dimensions of the normal, adult human sclera. B) Transmission electron
microscopy (TEM) image of the outer scleral stroma, showing lamellar structure formed by
collagen fibril bundles in longitudinal (Lc), transverse (Tc) and oblique (Oc) section. A
fibrocyte (F) and elastin fibre (E) can also be seen. Bar: 1.5μm. C) TEM image of stroma
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from a different specimen at higher magnification, showing D-periodic banding of individual

fibrils in longitudinal section. Proteoglycans are present as fine filaments (arrowheads)
associated with the collagen fibrils. Bar: 250nm. D) Second harmonic generation (SHG)
image of en-face section through the optic nerve head at mid-stromal depth, showing the
fenestrated lamina cribrosa (LC) that supports the exiting retinal nerve axons. The collagen
fibril bundles of the neighbouring peripapillary sclera (PPS) adopt a predominantly
circumferential orientation in this region. Panel B taken from (Bron et al., 1997) and

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reproduced with permission of Hodder Arnold. Panel C adapted from (Watson and Young,
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2004) with permission of Elsevier Ltd.

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Figure 2:
Anatomy of the anterior segment of the eye, showing the various scleral tissue layers.
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Adapted with permission from [Link]

limbus.
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Figure 3:
The hierarchical structure of scleral collagen (not to scale). Five triple alpha-chain
tropocollagen molecules assemble into microfibrils, in which the axial stagger of individual
molecules leads to gap/overlap regions that define the 67nm axial D-period. Varying
numbers of near-parallel microfibrils form collagen fibrils of diameters ranging from 25 to
[Link] microfibrils are actually inclined by ~5° to the fibril axis, but this is not shown in
this simplified diagram.
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Figure 4:
Gross orientations of collagen lamellae in the posterior human sclera, as interpreted from
histological examinations by Kokott (1934). Right eye shown with superior (S) and nasal
(N) aspects marked. Notable features are circular orientation around the optic nerve (on) and
associations with the superior oblique (so) and inferior oblique (io) muscle insertions. Figure
adapted from (Watson, 2012) with permission of JP Medical Ltd.
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Figure 5:
Quantifying scleral collagen orientation using wide-angle X-ray scattering (WAXS). A) The
constructive interference of forward-scattered X-rays from the regular lateral packing of
constituent tropocollagen molecules aligned near-axially within the fibrils produces a
Fourier transform (WAXS pattern) that is collected on a detector behind the specimen. B)
The collagen fibril orientation distribution function is extracted from the WAXS pattern by
analysing the angular spread of (radially integrated) X-ray intensity. The scatter from
preferentially aligned collagen (clear region of graph above the dotted line) is displayed as a
polar vector plot in which the plot shape indicates the preferential fibril orientations (in this
case uniaxial), while the plot size is indicative of the degree of anisotropy.
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Figure 6:
Collagen microstructure of the posterior sclera across species. Polar vector plots of collagen
fibril orientation in various mammal species (A–E) and humans (F), determined using
WAXS. The shape of the individual plots indicates the preferred direction of collagen fibrils
at that point in the tissue, while the plot colour scaling is indicative of the degree of
anisotropy. Note that the circumferential collagen structure of the peripapillary sclera
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bordering the optic nerve (ON) is poorly defined in smaller mammals, but becomes
gradually clearer with increasing eye size. The area covered by the WAXS maps is shown in
yellow on the accompanying eye shadow diagrams.

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Figure 7:
SALS mapping of fibre microstructure in the peripapillary sclera (PPS) and lamina cribrosa.
Left: Fibre maps for en-face sections from 6 human donors (3 healthy: N1–3; and 3
glaucoma: G1–3). A highly aligned (red colour) fibre ring (black vector) can be observed in
the PPS (the LC boundary is shown in black). Contour colour represents the fibre
concentration factor. Right: Simulated IOP-induced deformations (effective strain). Low
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deformations (blue colour) can be observed near the scleral canal boundary (a region prone
to mechanical defects). Such deformations would be much higher if one were to remove the
heterogenous PPS fibre ring. OPS: outer peripapillary sclera, IPS: inner peripapillary sclera.
Contour colour represents the strain magnitude. Figure modified from (Zhang et al., 2015)
with permission of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology.

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Figure 8:
Two-channel multiphoton microscopy image recorded from human episclera. The elastin
fibre network (red) is revealed by TPF autofluorescence, and is shown alongside collagen
fibril bundles (green) visualized concurrently with SHG imaging. Figure adapted from (Park
et al., 2016) with permission of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology.
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Figure 9:
A) The posterior sclera of the sheep eye visualised using PLM. Three major organizational
patterns were identified and marked by an asterisk, an ampersand, and a hashtag: i)
interweaving fibres that formed a basket-weave pattern (B) asterisk), ii) fibres oriented
radially from the canal (C) ampersand), and iii) fibres wrapped circumferentially around the
canal (D) hashtag). White lines representing orientation averaged over 20 × 20 μm2 were
overlaid to aid discerning the fibre organization. Figure adapted from (Jan et al., 2017b) with
permission of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology.
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Figure 10:
Collagen crimp period visualised using PLM. A) An LC beam appears banded when imaged
with PLM. B) Adding the lengths of one bright band and one dark band makes one collagen
crimp period. C) Processing several “raw” PLM images with various filter orientations, it is
possible to pseudocolour half periods as alternating yellow and purple bands that help
visualize the crimp. Note that the crimp bands are fairly uniform and perpendicular to the
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longitudinal axis of the LC beam. This crimp pattern helps reduce shearing and torsion
within the LC beam when loaded longitudinally. Note that crimp period is only one aspect of
fibre crimp. Figure adapted from (Jan et al., 2017a) with permission of the Association for
Research in Vision and Ophthalmology.

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Figure 11:
Wide views spanning the LC and sclera under PLM (top) and visualised using the yellow
and purple bands as described in Fig 10 to simplify discerning crimp period independent of
the orientation (middle). The bottom shows pairs of raw PLM images and corresponding
crimp period visualization images of close-ups of the LC (bottom left), proximal PPS
(bottom center), and distal PPS (bottom right). An example line illustrating three periods is
overlaid on each. It is easy to distinguish that the crimp period in the LC was small. In the
proximal PPS the period was similar to that of the LC. The period increased with distance
from the canal. Figure adapted from (Jan et al., 2017a) with permission of the Association
for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology.
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Figure 12:
Schematic of how fibre uncrimping contributes to tissue mechanical properties. (Top) As a
single fibre stretches, it uncrimps, requiring relatively little force until it loses all crimp. The
straightened fibre can only be stretched further by making the fibre longer, which requires an
increasing force, and so the fibre appears stiffer. A fibre that has uncrimped and is bearing
load is called “recruited”. The macroscopic force or stiffness of multiple fibres depends on
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the distribution of baseline crimp in the fibres. (Bottom row) In a region with fibres of
uniform crimp, stretch leads to a macroscopic step increase in stiffness due to the
simultaneous straightening of all fibres. In a region with variable crimp, stretch leads to a
gradual increase in stiffness due to the progressive straightening of fibres. Fibres with less
crimp are straightened and loaded (recruited) before fibres with more crimp. Figure adapted
from (Jan et al., 2017a) with permission of the Association for Research in Vision and
Ophthalmology.

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Figure 13:
Crimp characteristics vary around the globe, in consistent ways between individuals. The
figure is to compare crimp period and amplitude across regions of the globe. The 25th
percentile, 50th percentile (median), and 75th percentile period and amplitude values were
used to generate representative fibres for each region as sinusoidals. These visualizations are
not intended to represent any specific fibril, fibril bundle or lamellae, but are, instead,
intended to visualise how the crimp differs between regions. In regions with more uniform
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crimp, all three lines would be relatively similar, whereas in regions with highly variable
crimp they would vary. Figure adapted from (Jan et al., 2018) with permission of the
Experimental Eye Research.

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Figure 14:
Application of 3DPLM to the posterior pole of a sheep eye. The 3D orientation of the fibres
can be separated into in-plane and out-of-plane orientations, where the plane is that of the
section. (a) Bright field image of a cryosection with red and green arrowheads pointing to
long in-plane fibre bundles and out-of-plane fibre bundles, respectively; (b) In-plane fibre
orientation map showing both in-plane fibre morphology and orientation. Colours indicate
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the in-plane fibre orientation; (c) Out-of-plane fibre orientation map highlighting fibre
bundles. Colours indicate the out-of-plane fibre orientation, from fully in-plane (blue) to
perpendicular to the plane (maroon); (d) Out-of-plane fibre orientation of small region of
interest shown in (c); (e) 3D visualization of collagen fibres. Figure adapted from (Yang et
al., 2018b) with permission of the Journal of Biophotonics.

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Figure 15:
Collagen fibre orientation maps in the PPS and LC region of a pig eye. The images were
acquired using either PLM (a, c) or SPLM (b, d) of an uncut thick sample. (a) The PLM
images appear green, without much detail of the known architecture of the region. (b) In
contrast, SPLM images show a much more heterogeneous arrangement. Both
circumferential and radial fibres can be identified, based on color-coded orientations; (c) and
(d) show close-ups of the region marked by the dashed rectangle. Overlaid on the images are
locally averaged orientation lines. Figure adapted from (Yang et al., 2018a) with permission
of the SPIE.
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Figure 16:
Porcine PPS imaged by snapshot polarized light microscopy (Yang et al., 2019). The colors
indicate the local orientation of the collagen fibres and the brightness is roughly proportional
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to the local collagen density. Note that the colors are obtained through optical means, and
the image is not coloured digitally. The scleral canal is slightly out of frame on the bottom
right corner. Clearly discernible in the image are collagen fibre bundles circumferential to
the canal. The width of the region of circumferential fibres is between 20% and 40% of the
canal diameter in both porcine and human eyes (Gogola et al., 2018b). It is also possible to
distinguish the collagen fibres that form the bundles. The bands of color indicate collagen
fibre crimp (Jan et al., 2017b). The collagen fibre bundles and the crimp of the fibres
increase in size with distance from the canal (Jan et al., 2017a).
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Figure 17:
High-resolution T2*-weighted MR images of the unloaded ovine sclera near the optic nerve
head. The left panels show the cross-section of the sclera, optic nerve head, and lamina
cribrosa in sagittal view. The right panel shows the coronal T2*-weighted image oriented as
the blue box in the left panel at 16 × 16 μm2 in-plane resolution and repetition time/echo
time = 3000/9.5 ms. Details of the lamina cribrosa (yellow arrow) within the optic nerve
head and the distributions of crimps (red arrows) in the scleral fibres surrounding the optic
nerve head were revealed especially at orientations near the magic angle at approximately
55° to the main magnetic field (B0). Figure adapted from (Ho et al., 2014) with permission
of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology.
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Figure 18:
Quick-freeze deep-etch (QFDE) electron microscopy image of mouse posterior sclera,
revealing layers of differentially oriented collagen lamellae in 3D. On the right side of the
image (*) can be seen an area of partially etched, vitrified ice - a product of the “freeze-
fracture” processing that can preserve native hydrated structure more closely than is possible
with conventional electron microscopy sample preparation. Scale bar: 2 μm. Figure
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reproduced from (Ismail et al., 2017) with permission of Elsevier Ltd.

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Figure 19:
Ultrasound (US) speckle tracking of scleral and ONH deformation under inflation testing.
US image A) and colour maps of vertical displacement B), horizontal displacement C), and
strains (D–F) for a representative human donor eye at 30 mm Hg. The yellow dotted lines in
A) indicate the boundaries between ONH and peripapillary tissue (PPT), the inner and outer
blue lines are fitted curves for demarcation of region of interest (ROI) for strain analysis, and
the middle blue line is used to divide the anterior and posterior halves. Note that the retina is
largely excluded from the ROI. Positive displacements = upward vertical movement or
rightward horizontal movement. Vertical displacements were larger within the ONH. The
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horizontal displacement of PPT was negative on average on the left side of ONH and
positive on the right side of ONH, indicating a small scleral canal expansion. Through-
thickness compression was largest in magnitude and concentrated in the anterior half of the
ONH and PPT. Reproduced from (Ma et al., 2019) with permission of the Association for
Research in Vision and Ophthalmology.
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Figure 20:
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Inflation testing of intact eye globe. A) Elevation view diagram of the whole eye globe
inflation testing rig set-up. B) Side view of the rig set-up. C) Match between modelled and
imaged topography of the eye globe. The FE nodes representing the corneal apex, posterior
pole and limbal ring are highlighted in red. Adapted from (Whitford et al., 2016) under
Creative Commons License 4.0.
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Figure 21:
Steps to track IOP-induced displacement of a single scleral point in vivo. 1) an ROI is
created in the undeformed OCT volume; 2) The ROI undergoes a combination of affine
transformations (translation, rotation, shear and stretch); 3) a displacement vector can be
extracted when the deformed ROI best matches a co-localised ROI in the deformed volume.
Adapted from (Girard et al., 2013) with permission of the authors.
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Figure 22:
Simulated IOP promotes contractility in cultured human scleral fibroblasts. A) Fibroblast
contractility in response to 1% or 4% cyclic strain at 5 Hz for 24 hours, assessed by a 3D
collagen gel–based assay. The numbers refer to cell quantities, while the vertical graph axis
denotes relative gel area (a.u.) as measured in ImageJ. B) Phase-contrast and confocal
immunofluorescent images overlaid to show the correlation between expression of
intracellular contractile apparatus (αSMA and F-actin) and wrinkle formation. Arrow
indicates a wrinkle-forming myofibroblast. Arrowhead indicates a non–wrinkle-forming
fibroblast. Red: F-actin, Green: αSMA, Blue: DAPI. Scale bar: 50 μm. Reproduced from
(Qu et al., 2015) with permission of the Association for Research in Vision and
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Ophthalmology.
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Figure 23:
Experimental glaucoma increases cell proliferation and myofibroblast differentiation in
mouse sclera. Top row: Immunohistochemical labelling of vimentin (red) in A) control and
B) 3-day glaucoma scleral wholemounts. Middle row:→SMA labelling (green) in C) control
and D) 3-day glaucoma. Bottom row: cell adhesion molecule →actinin labelling (red) in E)
control and F) 3-day glaucoma. DAPI nuclear counterstain is shown in blue in all panels.
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Scale bars = 20um. Reproduced from (Oglesby et al., 2016) with permission of Molecular
Vision.

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Figure 24:
A schematic illustration of how the stiffness of the sclera affects the IOP-induced ONH
deformations. In the case of a compliant sclera (left), an increase in IOP induces large scleral
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deformations, which are transmitted to the scleral canal, resulting in a large scleral canal
expansion that pulls the lamina taut. Conversely, a stiff sclera deforms little under IOP
(right), with a small scleral canal expansion, allowing the lamina to be displaced posteriorly
by the action of IOP on its anterior surface. Figure adapted from (Sigal et al., 2011b) with
permission of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology.
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Figure 25:
A) Computational models used to simulate the biomechanical behavior of four theoretical
collagen fibre arrangements (top row). Shown in light blue is the posterior sclera, with the
scleral canal as a red disc. The black lines represent the collagen fibres. On the middle and
bottom row are shown contour levels of the magnitude of the deformations (strain) due to an
IOP elevation of 50 mmHg. A simple reinforcement of the canal with circumferential fibres
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limited the strain in the lamina due to IOP but did provide support to the sclera. Conversely,
a radial arrangement of fibres reduced the strain in the sclera, but lead to high strains within
the lamina. The combination of radial and circumferential fibres still caused high strains in
the lamina. A tangential arrangement of fibres provided the best reinforcement for both the
sclera and the lamina, reducing the strains to near zero-levels. Depending on the fibre
curvature, long fibres tangential to the canal can have substantially different responses to
IOP increases. B) Maps of IOP-induced strain for three different fibre curvatures. When the

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fibres were concave to the canal (Canal Closing Fibers), increased IOP caused the canal to
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close, and lamina compression. When the fibres were convex (Canal Opening Fibers),
increased IOP caused the canal to open and the lamina to stretch. Note that the models
incorporated many fibres. For simplicity, only a few are shown. C) Diagram of the
mechanism of action of long tangential fibres. For concave fibres, the load from IOP results
in an outward tensile force at the canal boundary as the fibres straighten. For convex fibres,
the load from IOP results in an inward compressive force at the canal boundary as the fibres
straighten. Figure adapted from (Voorhees et al., 2018) with permission of Acta
Biomaterialia.
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Figure 26:
Magnetic resonance imaging (left), optical coherence tomography imaging (centre), and
finite element modelling (right) all strongly suggest that the optic nerve applies a traction
force onto the back of the eye during eye movements. The net result is shearing of the optic
nerve head tissues (red arrows). Note that deformations were magnified 5 times in the finite
element models to aid visual interpretation. Adapted from Wang et al., 2016a and Wang et
al., 2017 with permission of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology.
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Figure 27:
A schematic description of three mechanisms by which increases in CSFP cause ONH
deformations. Undeformed ONH is shown with continuous lines, and deformed ONH with
dashed lines. (a) CSFP acts inwardly compressing the pia mater and the retrolaminar neural
tissue within. Due to the Poisson effect, lateral compression may cause expansion in the
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axial direction, increasing retrolaminar pressure (Morgan et al., 1995) “pushing” anteriorly
on the lamina and causing clockwise rotation of the PPS. (b) CSFP acts outwardly on the
dura mater away from the pia mater, causing the known distension of the dural sheath,
(Killer et al., 2003) rotating the PPS counterclockwise, and displacing the periphery of the
lamina posteriorly. (c) CSFP “pushes” the PPS anteriorly, causing flattening of the globe and
clockwise rotation of the PPS, and displacing the periphery of the lamina anteriorly. Figure
adapted from (Hua et al., 2018) with permission of the Association for Research in Vision
and Ophthalmology.
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Figure 28:
Determinants of the peripapillary sclera (PPS) angle in healthy eyes. An increase in the v-
shaped configuration of the peripapillary sclera (PPS) is associated with increasing age,
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longer axial length, thinner central corneal thickness (CCT), thinner choroidal thickness,
worse vision and an increase in lamina cribrosa (LC) depth. Adapted from (Tun et al., 2019)
with permission of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology.
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Figure 29:
Effect of myopia on eye shape. A) Emmetropia is the visual condition of the normal eye
with clear vision. This condition is achieved when the axial length of the eye matches the
refractive power of the cornea and lens, such that light rays are focused exactly on the retina.
B) A myopic eye is too long for its optical components and light focuses in front of the
retina causing faraway objects to appear blurry. C) Overlaid histologic sections of the
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emmetropic eye and the contralateral, highly myopic eye of the same donor showing the
extended posterior segment of the myopic eye. The anatomy of the anterior segment is
nearly identical in both eyes. In contrast, the posterior segment of the myopic eye is
elongated compared to the emmetropic eye, causing the typical increase in axial length seen
in myopia. Reproduced from (Grytz, 2018) with permission of Kugler Publications.
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Figure 30:
The emmetropization process and factors that impact the refractive development of the eye.
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Mechanisms highlighted in yellow represent visual stimuli and environmental factors that
impact the refractive development of the eye. Mechanisms highlighted in blue are thought to
be involved in the feedback mechanism. Mechanisms highlighted in green are believed to
impact the refractive development of the eye without modulation by the feedback
mechanism. Reproduced from (Grytz, 2018) with permission of Kugler Publications.
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Figure 31:
Bulk collagen microstructural changes in human high myopia. Left panel: WAXS polar
vector maps of collagen orientation in (top) a normal and (bottom) a high myopia flat-mount
human posterior sclera. The peripapillary sclera, bordering the optic nerve, is shown
bounded in black. Note myopic alteration to collagen directions in this region. The normal
sclera features a predominantly circumferential pattern, with only a slight interruption in the
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superior (S)-nasal (N) aspect. However the S-N interruption is far more widespread in the
highly myopic eye (arrows), suggesting an unravelling of the normal structure in high
myopia. Right panel: fibre displacement angle from perfect circumferential alignment in
(top) average of 7 normal specimens and (bottom) the high myopia specimen. ON: optic
nerve. Figure adapted from (Markov et al., 2018) with permission of Molecular Vision.

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Figure 32:
Regulation of scleral creep rate in tree shrews during experimentally induced myopia (−5D
lens treatment) and recovery. Axial elongation was accelerated in the treated eye during
monocular - 5D lens treatment and slowed during recovery from −5D lens wear (lens
removal). Creep rate increased/decreased in the treated eye during lens treatment/recovery.
The creep rate of the control eye and normal animals without lens treatment are shown for
comparison. Reproduced from (Grytz, 2018) with permission of Kugler Publications.
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Figure 33:
Computational modelling of theoretical posterior segment ring implants as a potential
glaucoma therapy. A) Generic human eye model geometry and FE mesh. B) Proposed
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intrascleral (IS) ring implant (implant material stiffness = 200GPa). C) Alternative ring
implant (200GPa stiffness) located in the subarachnoid space (SAS). D) Effect of SAS and
IS+SAS combination implants on calculated ONH deformation behaviour, under a simulated
IOP of 50mmHg. A maximum 66% reduction in scleral canal expansion and a 28%
reduction in LC strain are predicted by the model under the double ring combination implant
strategy. Adapted from (Soh, 2016) under Creative Commons License 4.0.
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 Boote et al. Page 83
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Figure 34:
Fourier analysis of mechanical load-induced F-actin stress fibre networks in cultured bovine
scleral fibroblasts. A) Confocal image showing green cytoskeletal stress fibres of F-actin,
stained with Alexa-488® phalloidin (bar = 25um). B) Map of integrated actin signal,
sampled every 5um. C) Polar vector map of actin fibre orientation from analysis of Fourier
power spectrum. D) Map of degree of fibre recruitment (DFR) around the principal fibre
direction. Reproduced from (Pijanka et al., 2019) with permission of the Journal of
Biophotonics.
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Figure 35:
A) Fundus image of the rat ONH. B) Collagen fibre orientations (colour map) in the
peripapillary sclera about 160 um posterior to the retinal pigment epithelium. Colour scale:
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−90 to 90 degrees. S, T, I, N: superior, temporal, inferior, nasal. C) Preferred collagen fibre

orientations in the peripapillary sclera showing a ring pattern. Adapted from (Baumann et
al., 2014) with permission of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology.
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Figure 36:
Automated segmentation of ONH connective and neural tissues using artificial intelligence
(AI) computing. The peripapillary sclera is shown in yellow. The performance of AI is now
similar to that of a human expert.
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Figure 37:
Potential stem cell treatment for progressive myopia. A) Injection of a mesenchymal stem
cell suspension into the subscleral space. B) Dual mechanisms for the possible prevention of
myopic eye elongation. Left: Integration of stem cells into the scleral stroma for direct
mechanical support. Right: Indirect stimulation of the scleral tissue via dopamine
production. Adapted from (Janowski et al., 2015) with permission of AlphaMed Press.
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Table 1:

Approximate composition of the human sclera.

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Component % of wet weight

Water 68

Collagens 28

Other proteins (including cell components) <3

Proteoglycans <1

Elastin 0.6
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Prog Retin Eye Res. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2021 January 01.