Figure 5

EpoB stabilizes the fiber regrowth in Zone 3 of the cornea after injury. (A) Changes in the discontinuous nerve fibers (β-III tubulin staining; original magnification: 400X) in Zone 3 at days 2, 4, and 6 after wounding in the control, vehicle, and EpoB groups. (B) The number of discontinuous nerve fibers in Zone 3 from day 1 to day 6 after wounding in the control, vehicle, and EpoB groups. (C) and (D) Four areas within Zone 3 of the entire whole-mount corneal nerve were selected for the line pixel intensity profile from a row of pixels in the Image window. (E) The mean line pixel intensity of nerve fibers at day 6 after wounding in the control, vehicle, and EpoB groups. Significant differences were found compared to the vehicle and normal groups. The results are presented as the mean ± SD. A factorial design ANOVA was performed to analyze the overall differences between the two groups, and Student’s t-test was used to compare the differences between the groups by time point. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01; n = 6 corneas/time point.