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. 2010 May;51(5):2537–2547. doi: 10.1167/iovs.09-4152

Figure 3.

Figure 3.

Apoptosis in the infected cornea. (A–D) Early (1 day p.i.), intense TUNEL-positive staining was detected in the paracentral corneas of BALB/c WT (A) than in BALB/c FasL−/− (C) mice. At 3 days p.i., BALB/c FasL−/− (D) compared with WT (B) corneas had greater TUNEL staining. Original magnification, 75× (n = 3/group/time/test). (E–L) Real-time RT-PCR of apoptosis-related genes (n = 5/group/time/test). (E) mRNA expression levels for caspase 3 were lower at 1 day (P = 0.01) but higher at 3 days (P < 0.001) p.i. in BALB/c FasL−/− than in WT mouse corneas. No difference was detected at 5 days p.i. between groups. (F) Caspase 9 mRNA levels were lower at 1 day (P = 0.03) but higher at 3 (P < 0.001) and 5 (P < 0.001) days p.i. in BALB/c FasL−/− than WT mouse corneas. (G) Caspase 8 mRNA levels were downregulated at 1 (P = 0.001), 3 (P < 0.001), and 5 (P = 0.001) days p.i. in BALB/c FasL−/− than in WT mice. (H) mRNA levels for BAX were upregulated at 1 day p.i. in BALB/c WT compared with FasL−/− mice (P = 0.004). No differences were detected between groups at 3 and 5 days p.i. (I) Corneal Bcl-2 expression was upregulated at 1 day (P = 0.002) but downregulated at 3 (P = 0.03) and 5 (P < 0.001) days p.i. in BALB/c FasL−/− compared with WT mice. (J) Caspase mRNA expression was increased at 3 days p.i. in B6 WT versus FasL−/− mouse cornea (P = 0.008). No difference was detected at 1 or 5 days p.i. between groups. (K) Corneal mRNA levels for BAX were upregulated at 1 day (P = 0.001) and 3 days (P = 0.03) p.i. in B6 WT versus FasL−/− mice. No difference was detected between groups at 5 days p.i. (L) Corneal Bcl-2 expression was upregulated at 3 days p.i. in B6 FasL−/− compared with WT mice (P < 0.001). No difference was detected at 1 or 5 days p.i. or in normal, uninfected corneas between groups for either of the genes tested.