Fig. 5: Hierarchical analysis for subpopulations of retinal vascular endothelial progenitors.

Lineage tracing analysis in a vascular injury model suggests that endothelial progenitor cells that reside in optic nerve play a pivotal role in vascular repair in the retina. a Scheme of the experimental set-up for tamoxifen administration and lineage tracing in Procr;CreERT2-tdTomato mice at indicated time points during oxygen induced retinopathy (OIR). b Flat-mount confocal microscopic analysis of the optic nerve and retina for td-Tomato combined with CD31 immunostaining. Vascular regeneration was studied at P13, P17 and P28. c Quantification of tdTomato⁺ area/CD31⁺ area in optic nerve, the central and mid-peripheral retina at P13, P17 and P28 in Procr;CreERT2-tdTomato mice during OIR model (n = 4). Data were from at least four mice for each tracing time point and lines are presented as median. Significance was determined using a one-way ANOVA with Tukey’s multiple comparisons test. d Schematic illustration of the hierarchy of retinal endothelial cells in this study. Each image is from representative of at least two independent experiments. Bar indicates 200 µm in the retina images and 50 µm in those of optic nerve.