Figure 10.

The cell death induced by the expression of mutant PRPF31 proteins was significantly reduced by the treatment with BAF, a caspase inhibitor. Transfection and TUNEL staining were performed as described for Figure 9, except BAF or vehicle control was added to the cultured retinal cells. In the absence of BAF, cells expressing mutant PRPF31, either N371 or N256, showed a significantly increased percentage of TUNEL-positive cells compared with cells expressing GFP alone or wild-type (wt) PRPF31 (^**p < 0.01). Treatment with BAF blocked cell death and eliminated the differences between the mutant groups (^*) and control groups.