FIGURE 6.

LIF-mediated activation of retinal STAT3 and down-regulation of rhodopsin protein depends on gp130/STAT3 pathway within the neuroretina. Shown are representative blots and analysis of multiple blots for pSTAT3 and rhodopsin protein content from retina homogenates 5 days after a single intravitreal injection of 3.0 μg LIF. In gp130-RPE-cre KO retinas (A) and STAT3-RPE-cre KO retinas (B), LIF induced activation of STAT3 and did not change rhodopsin protein levels compared with WT littermates. The deletion of retinal gp130 in gp130-Ret-cre KO mice (C) and in both retina and RPE in gp130-Ret&RPE-cre DKO (D) suppressed the activation of retinal STAT3 and the reduced levels of rhodopsin protein. β-Actin was used as the loading control. Normalizations were done to the respective PBS control and used for comparisons between WT and KO groups. n = at least 3 for each group; *, p < 0.05 by unpaired t test. Error bars, S.E.