Figure 2
Clinical and histological evaluation of EAU mice.
Subretinal delivery of AAV8-ACE2 reduced the clinical and histological scores in EAU mice. (a) Clinical signs were assessed with a slit lamp from day 7 to day 21 after IRBP immunization. Representative images showed the anterior inflammation from the naïve mice, AAV8-ACE2 or AAV8-eGFP treated EAU mice and EAU mice at the 14th day after immunization. Corneal edema, conjunctival hyperemia, hypopyon and posterior synechiae were seen in the AAV8-eGFP+EAU and EAU group. Whereas there were mild inflammatory signs in the AAV8-ACE2+EAU group. (c) The severity of clinical scores were remarkably decreased on the 12th, 14th and 16th day in the AAV8-ACE2 treated eyes compared with the AAV8-eGFP treated EAU eyes (**P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001) and EAU eyes (#P < 0.05, ###P < 0.001, n = 4–8 per group). (b) Histological scores were assessed by hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining paraffin-embedded sections of eyes collected at the 14th day after immunization. Representative images from the AAV8-eGFP treated EAU mice and EAU mice showed severe retinal folds, damage of the photoreceptor layer and massive infiltrated inflammatory cell in the vitreous, retina and subretinal space; minor infiltration of cells and retinal folding was observed in the AAV8-ACE2+EAU group. (d) The AAV8-ACE2 treated EAU group showed a reduced EAU histological scores compared to the AAV8-eGFP treated EAU group (***p < 0.001) and EAU group (***p < 0.001). The independent experiment was repeated for 4 times. Magnification: 50×, 200×, scale bar = 50 μm. Data were shown as mean ± SEM (n = 8 per group).
