Figure 4
From: Elk-1 regulates retinal ganglion cell axon regeneration after injury
Elk-1 is downstream of PTEN for RGC survival and regeneration. (a) Expression of Elk-1 in whole retinas of PTENflox/flox mice at 2 weeks after intravitreal injection with either AAV2-GFP or AAV2-Cre-GFP. Full blot in Supplemental Fig. S2. (b) Quantitative analysis of PTEN KO-induced activation of Elk-1 in whole retinas in (a). n = 12, *P < 0.05, two-tailed paired t-test. (c) Representative images show RBPMS staining of RGCs at day 14 after optic nerve crush, for either AAV2-Cre-GFP + AAV2-shRNA-Luciferase or AAV2-Cre-GFP + AAV2-shRNA-Elk-1 injected PTENflox/flox mice. (d) Quantitative analysis of RBPMS-positive cell number in the retinas in c. n = 4 per group, ***P < 0.001, two-tailed Student’s t-test. For reference, the data of the shRNA control and Elk-1 KD groups in Fig. 2e are shown in light gray. (e) Representative images of the optic nerve sections showing CTB-labelled regenerating axons at day 14 after optic nerve injury, for either AAV2-Cre-GFP + AAV2-shRNA-Luciferase or AAV2-Cre-GFP + AAV2-shRNA-Elk-1 injected PTENflox/flox mice. (f) Quantitative analyses of estimated regenerating axons from the injury site in the optic nerves in (e). n = 4 per group, *P < 0.05, multiple t-tests. For reference, the data of the shRNA control and Elk-1 KD groups in Fig. 2g are shown in light gray. (g) Images show RBPMS staining of RGCs at day 14 after optic nerve crush, for either AAV2-GFP + AAV2-Elk-1 or AAV2-Cre-GFP + AAV2-Elk-1 injected PTENflox/flox mice. (h) Quantitative analysis of RBPMS-positive cell number in the retinas in g. n = 6 per group, *P < 0.05, two-tailed Student’s t-test. For reference, the data of the GFP control group in Fig. 2i are shown in light gray. (i) Images of the optic nerve sections showing CTB-labelled regenerating axons at day 14 after optic nerve injury, for either AAV2-GFP + AAV2-Elk-1 or AAV2-Cre-GFP + AAV2-Elk-1 injected PTENflox/flox mice. (j) Quantitative analyses of estimated regenerating axons from the injury site in the optic nerves in (i). n = 5 per group, *P < 0.05, multiple t-tests. The number of axons at the 100um distance was too numerous to quantify accurately. For reference, the data of the GFP control group in Fig. 2k are shown in light gray. Asterisks, lesion sites. Scale bars, 200 µm. The data are presented as means ± S.E.M.
