Figure 5
Dexamethasone suppresses HSV-1-induced corneal neovascularization in a time-dependent manner. A single bolus of vehicle or dexamethasone (DEX, 10 mg kg−1) was given by intraperitoneal injection (ip) at day 10 pi. (a) Representative Z-stacked corneal images depicting lymphatic (green) and blood (red) vessels at day 14 pi comparing vehicle (VEH) to DEX-treated mice. Metamorph quantification of corneal area covered by (b) LYVE-1+ lymphatic vessels, and (c) CD31+ blood vessels per × 100 field of view. Bar=200 μm. (d) Protein expression of pro-angiogenic factors at day 14 pi comparing VEH- to DEX-treated mice. (e) Representative Z-stacked corneal images depicting lymphatic (green) and blood (red) vessels at day 21 pi comparing VEH- to DEX-treated mice. Metamorph quantification of corneal area covered by (f) LYVE-1+ lymphatic vessels, and (g) CD31+ blood vessels per × 100 field of view. Bar=200 μm. (h) Protein expression of pro-angiogenic factors at day 21 pi comparing VEH- to DEX-treated mice. (i) Leukocyte content in the cornea at day 21 pi indicating (from left to right) neutrophils, macrophages, inflammatory monocytes, CD4+ T cells, CD8+ T cells, and NK cells. Data represent the summary of mean±s.e.m. of two independent experiments (a–c and e–g) with n=10 corneas, three independent experiments (d,h) with n=6–12 mice, two independent experiments (i) and n=5–9 mice (h). **P<0.01, ****P<0.0001 (a–c,e–g) as determined by Student’s t-test. *P<0.1, **P<0.01, ***P<0.001, ****P<0.0001 (d,h) as determined by one-way ANOVA followed by Tukey’s multiple comparisons test.
