Fig. 4: Tfam^ECKO, Cox10^ECKO and Trx2^ECKO retinas exhibit microaneurysm and arterialization at advanced ages.

a–c P15 retinas from WT, Tfam^ECKO, Cox10^ECKO and Trx2^ECKO treated with TAM at P1 were subjected to whole mount staining for CD31 (a). Vasculatures in three retinal layers (surface, intermediate and deep) were imaged by confocal microscopy analyses, and pseudo-colored by red, blue and green, respectively. WT had three layers of vasculature (unique vessels in each layer are indicated by arrows) while the mutant retinas had only the surface vessels with stalled diving vessels (arrowheads) (b). Vessel branch points were quantified (c). n = 6 mice per group. d–f Intraretinal vessels from GCL into intermediate IPL and deep INL/OPL layers were examined by CD31 staining of retina cross sections (d). Microaneurysm (e) and intraretinal vessels/section (f) were quantified. n = 6 mice per group. g–i P15 retinas were subjected to whole mount co-staining with α-SMA, endomucin (EMCN) and CD31. Arrowheads and asterisks indicate normal α-SMA^- microvessels in WT and α-SMA⁺ microvessels in the mutant retinas, respectively. A: artery/arterial; V: vein. Microvessel density (h) and α-SMA coverage (α-SMA:CD31) (i) were quantified by Image J. n = 6 mice per group. Data are means ± SEM. P values are indicated, using one-way ANOVA followed by Tukey’s multiple comparisons test. Scale bar: 50 μm (a, d); 25 μm (b); 100 μm (g). Source data are provided as a Source Data file.