Fig. 3.
Effects of BDNF, FGF-2, and CNTF on the speed of regeneration. A: Histogram showing the effects of neurotrophic factor application to the optic nerve on the mean axonal length of the 100 longest axons. All factors show significant increases compared with PBS (hatched bars), and their receptor-blocking antibodies almost completely block these effects (open bars). A combination of factors (cocktail) is only as effective as CNTF. B: Histogram showing the effects of intraocular neurotrophic factor injection on the mean axonal length of the 100 longest axons. All factors show significant increases compared with PBS (hatched bars), and their receptor-blocking antibodies almost completely block these effects (open bars). The cocktail of factors is only as effective as CNTF alone. Bars represent mean ± SEM, with asterisks above indicating P values vs. PBS for growth factors (hatched bars) and vs. the respective growth factor for the blocking antibody (open bars). N = 5 for PBS, BDNF, FGF-2, and CNTF; N = 3 for blocking antibodies and cocktail applications. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001.