Figure 1

Chronic ocular hypertension downregulates α7-nAChR expression in adult rat retina. (A) Changes in IOP after inducing ocular hypertension. The IOP is significantly greater in eyes that underwent EVC than in control eyes (***p < 0.001). (B) Real-time PCR analysis of α7-nAChR mRNA expression in control and glaucomatous retinas at 1, 3, 5, and 7 days after EVC (1 day, n = 4; 3 days, n = 4; 5 days, n = 4; 7 days, n = 6); expression was normalized by the expression in the control retina. **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001 vs. control retina. (C) Representative western blot of α7-nAChR expression in control and glaucomatous retinas. The expression of the 55 kDa protein decreases at 1 week after EVC and is sustained for up to 3 weeks. The full-length blots are presented in Supplementary Figure S1. (D) Densitometric analysis of α7-nAChR expression at 1 week (n = 6) and 3 weeks (n = 8) after EVC. Expression was normalized to the expression in the control retina. ***p < 0.001 vs. control retina. (E) Micrographs of 10 μm thick transverse sections of control and glaucomatous retinas. In contrast to the control retina (top panel), only a few ganglion cells are observed in the glaucomatous retina (bottom panel). Bar, 15 μm. The results in A, B, and D are expressed as the mean ± SE. α7-nAChR, α7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor; d, day; IOP, intraocular pressure; OHT, ocular hypertension; w, week; GCL, ganglion cell layer; INL, inner nuclear layer; IPL, inner plexiform layer. The arrows indicate RGCs; the asterisks indicate amacrine cells.