Figure 6
Retinal ganglion cell axonal growth is stimulated by AAV2-CAG–hNRN1 in the ONC model. Animals were intravitreally injected with either AAV2–GFP or AAV2–hNRN1. Two weeks later, animals were subjected to optic nerve crush and whole eyes harvested at 28 days post crush. Fluorescence micrographs of retinal flat mount sections immunolabeled with Gap43 and Nefm (a) AAV2–GFP and (b) AAV2–hNRN1. In retinal flat mounts, red indicates Nefm and green is Gap43. Three-dimensional construction of whole ONs injected with CTB-594: (c) AAV2–GFP and (d) AAV2–hNRN1. Red staining in whole ONs indicates CTB-594 labeled axons. Dotted line represents crush site within each ON image. Scale bar=50 μm (a and b, n=5), (c and d, n=4–8). Photomicrographs were captured at 400 × (a and b) and 200 × (c and d) original magnification. (e) Quantification of mean fluorescence intensity of CTB-594. Data are presented as mean±S.E.M. Statistical significance between treatment conditions determined by unpaired Student’s t-test, **P<0.01, n=8–14
