Fig. 2: Tryptophan metabolite ITE alleviated retinal injury and ameliorated retinal inflammation state in IR mice model.

Retinal ischemia/reperfusion injury model was established with or without ITE (10 mg/kg) daily intraperitoneal injection, and mice were euthanatized after 7 days or 1 day for RGC survival investigation or 1 day to detect the expression of inflammatory cytokines. A Retinal flat mounts from Control, IR and IR + ITE groups at day 7 to detect β-III-tubulin (red) positive RGCs by immunofluorescence staining. B Histograms showing quantitation of RGC survival percent in each group. C Apoptosis of the retina from Control, IR and IR + ITE groups at day 1 were detected by TUNEL (green) staining. Cell nuclei were counterstained with DAPI (blue). GCL ganglion cell layer, INL inner nuclear layer, ONL outer nuclear layer. D–F mRNA expression of TNFα, IL-1β and IL6 at day 1 were detected by qRT-PCR in the retina from Control, IR and IR + ITE groups. G, H Western blot showing the protein expression of inflammatory cytokines TNFα, IL-1β and IL6 in retinas of IR at day 1 with or without ITE administration. Control, control group; IR, ischemia/reperfusion injury; IR + ITE, IR with ITE treatment. A-B, D-H, n = 6-8 for each group; C, n = 4 for each group, scale bars: 50 μm. All data are presented as mean ± SEM, *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001, P value was obtained by one way ANOVA followed by multiple comparisons. Each dot in graphs represents data from an individual retina from mice.