Fig. 5.

Expression of stem cell markers by Müller glia and non-pigmented CE (A) RT-PCR analysis of two Müller stem cell lines that became spontaneously immortal (MIO-M1 and MIO-M7) and two non-pigmented CE cell preparations (CE 6165 and CE 6213). All cells expressed the retinal progenitor markers SHH, PAX6, CHX10, SOX2 and NOTCH1. However, a lower expression of SOX2 was observed in non-pigmented CE cells, when compared with Müller stem cells. GAPDH primers were used as control. (B) Immunostaining of Müller and non-pigmented CE cells for markers of retinal progenitors. A proportion of Müller stem cells showed expression of CHX10, SHH and SOX2, whilst non-pigmented CE cells did not stain positively for these proteins. Müller cells with stem cell characteristics also expressed the intermediate filament protein Nestin, a marker of neural stem cells, whilst CE cells did not express this protein. (CE = Ciliary Epithelium, EGF = Epidermal Growth Factor. Scale bars represents 50 μm.)