Fig. 1: AIM2 is highly expressed in quiescent mature RPE cells and is downregulated when they initiate proliferation and undergo EMT. | Cell Death & Disease

Fig. 1: AIM2 is highly expressed in quiescent mature RPE cells and is downregulated when they initiate proliferation and undergo EMT.

From: Absent in melanoma 2: a potent suppressor of retinal pigment epithelial-mesenchymal transition and experimental proliferative vitreoretinopathy

Fig. 1

A Morphological images of phRPE cells isolated from the eyes of the donor and cultured on day one at passage 0 (P0), passage 3 (P3), and passage 6 (P6) using a phase contrast microscope. Scale bar: 20 μm. B Representative IF images of OTX2-labeled RPE cells and Ki67-labeled proliferative cells in native and P6 phRPE cells. Scale bar: 20 μm. C Volcano plot representation of DEGs detected by RNA-Seq analysis in native RPE cells from donor eyes versus P3 phRPE cells (n = 3). Red and green dots indicate significantly upregulated and downregulated genes, respectively. D Heatmap with clustering of EMT-related DEGs. E The bar graph of the KEGG analysis shows the top differentially regulated pathways. The black line indicates pathways related to cell adhesion- or cytoskeleton-related genes. The red line underlines cancer-related pathways. F Heatmap with clustering of cancer-related DEGs. G Relative folds of AIM2 transcript levels in native and P0, P1, P3, and P6 RPE cells, and ARPE-19 cells measured using real-time PCR analysis. N = 3. Data are presented as mean ± SD. * P < 0.05 or ***P < 0.001 by one-way ANOVA and post hoc Bonferroni’s test. H Representative image of AIM2 protein expression levels in native and P6 RPE cells assessed using immunoblot analysis. I Analysis of the band intensities in immunoblot results and normalized to GAPDH based on the results (H) (n = 3). Data are presented as mean ± SD. ***P < 0.001 by two-tailed Student’s t-test.

Back to article page