Figure 1.

BACE1 immunostaining showed upregulation of BACE1 intensity in retinal tissue from AMD donor eyes

Retinal sections from AMD and age-matched, non-AMD human donor eyes were immunostained with anti-BACE1 followed by conjugated Alexa Fluor 594 secondary antibody. BACE1 staining is red, and nuclei are stained blue with DAPI. Representative images are shown (A). BACE1 immunostaining was graded qualitatively in each retinal layer as: 5, strong bright intense, 4, bright uniformly intense; 3, patchy and moderate intense; 2, uniform and weak; 1, patchy and very weak; and 0, none. Mean fluorescence intensity in each retinal layer and fluorescence intensity was determined for AMD vs. non-AMD retinas. Statistical analysis demonstrated that BACE1 significantly increased in the ganglion cell layer, the outer plexiform layer (OPL), the outer nuclear layer (ONL), the photoreceptor inner segment (IS) layer, and the retinal pigmented epithelium (RPE) layer with p < 0.05 or p < 0.01, mean ± SEM, n = 5, from each study group (B).