FIGURE 5.

Reduced complement negative regulatory protein genes expression levels in albino abca4^−/− mice. A, a histogram shows the relative DAF1, DAF2, CFH, CD59a, CD59b, and CRRY mRNA levels by qRT-PCR from 4-week-old BALB/c (WT) and abca4^−/− (KO) mice. Each mRNA level was normalized to 18 S rRNA (n = 9; *, p < 0.005, and **, p < 0.05). B, a histogram shows CFH (a) and CRRY (b) protein levels in 4-week-old mice by quantitative immunoblot analysis. The CFH (c) and CRRY (d) immunoreactivity bands were normalized to α-tubulin (c) and GAPDH (d) bands, respectively. 30- and 20-μg protein amounts were loaded on CFH and CRRY blots, respectively. Error bars indicate S.D. (n = 5; *, p < 0.003). C, immunocytochemistry shows CRRY (green) immunoreactivity in 4-week-old RPE cells of WT (left panels) and KO (right panels). Nuclei are stained with DAPI. There is ∼35% reduction in CRRY-fluorescein intensity in KO RPE sections (n = 17 for the WT and n = 16 for the KO; *, p < 0.00005).