Figure 1

(A) Quantitative RT-PCR analysis of the levels of expression of pde6b mRNA from P1 to P14. In WT mice, pde6b expression gradually increased from P1 to P14. In rd1 mice, the level of pde6b mRNA expression was very low from P1 and showed significant differences compared with WT mice from P3. (N = 3, and each sample was pooled from four retinas from two different litters). (B) Histological sections of WT and rd1 mouse retinas. The ONL of rd1 mice thinned to merely a few layers at P14 compared to the WT mice's ONL. Image scale bar: 50 μm. (C) The thickness of total retina of WT mice and rd1 mice at the indicated positions from the optic nerve head (ONH). The total retina thickness of rd1 mice at P14 was significantly different from that of WT mice. (D) The thickness of outer nuclear layer (ONL) for both WT and rd1 mice. The nuclei count of the ONL of rd1 mice at P14 differed significantly from that of WT mice. (E) The thickness of inner nuclear layer (INL) of WT mice and rd1 mice. There was no significant difference in the nuclei count of the INL between rd1 and WT mice at different postnatal days. (N = 3 eyes from different mice, n = 3 images from each eye). **P < 0.01, *P < 0.05 compared with rd1 mice by an independent two-sample t-test.