Figure 1

The r15 mutant mice display late-onset recessive retinal degeneration with aberrant RPE cells.

Fundus photos from a 4-week old r15 heterozygous mouse (a), a 4-week old r15 homozygous mutant mouse (b) and a 6-month old homozygous mutant mouse (c); retinal veins are indicated by black arrowheads and retinal arteries indicated by white arrows. Toluidine blue stained retinal sections from 4-week old heterozygous (d) and homozygous (e) mutant mice and 18-month old heterozygous (f) and homozygous (g) mutant mice; white arrows indicate RPE; ONL, outer nuclear layer; INL, inner nuclear layer. Spider graphs show ONL thickness in r15 heterozygous mice (black lines, n = 3) and r15 homozygous mice (grey lines, n = 3) at the ages of 4 weeks (h), 6 months (i) and 18 months (j). Immunostaining of 20-month old r15 heterozygous (k) and homozygous (l) retinal frozen sections indicate that mislocalized pigmented structures are labeled by an anti-RPE65 antibody (red, white arrows); nuclei are labeled with Dapi (blue); differential interference contrast (DIC) merged images (k′ and l′) are underneath the corresponding images; RPE, retinal pigment epithelium; PS, photoreceptor segments; Scale bars for panels d-g and k-l′, 20 μm.