Figure 2.

Identification and discrimination of pericytes from vascular smooth muscle cells (vSMCs) in the retina visualizing NG2 and alpha smooth muscle actin (aSMA) protein expression. (A) NG2 immunopositivity can be detected in both, retinal pericytes (representative arrow) and aSMA positive arteriolar SMCs (representative arrowhead). (B) Retinal capillary pericytes lack the aSMA signal (arrows) and (C) can be therefore discriminated from vSMCs as illustrated in the merged picture (in accordance with results in Trost et al., 2013).