Figure 1

IOP readings and retinal ganglion cell counts in AAV2 viral vector injected rat eyes. A. IOP measurements. One eye of the rats was intravitreally injected with one of the AAV2 viral vectors (GFP, green bars; OPTN-GFP or OPTN, yellow bars; E50K-GFP or E50K, orange bars), and the contralateral eye was either non-injected (white bars) or injected with PBS (gray bars) as negative controls. The IOP was measured before injection (referred to as day 0), or 2, 4, and 5 weeks post-injection. Results are presented as mean ± SEM (n =15). No IOP difference was seen between AAV2 injection and control groups. B-D. Retinal whole mounts. Rat eyes were injected intravitreally with one of the AAV2 viral vectors (GFP, B; OPTN-GFP or OPTN, C; and E50K-GFP or E50K, D). Five weeks post-injection, the retinal whole mounts were visualized by fluorescence microscopy. Efficient transduction in cells in the retinal ganglion layer was observed. The GFP expression was robust with clearly visible retinal ganglion axons. Insets show other areas at a higher magnification. Scale bars, 20 μm. E. Bar graphs depict total retinal ganglion cell counts per retina. Results are presented as mean ± SEM (n = 6). *, P < 0.0062 compared with GFP controls.