Figure 6.

Astrocytes in mutant strains. (A–D) Postnatal day 28 whole retinas stained with GFAP and GS isolectin. The characteristic star-shaped morphology of astrocytes was present in all of the models and their processes wrapped blood vessels. Within Fat3^−/− retinas, globe-shaped processes were found at some tips of astrocytes and filled areas of the inner limiting membrane that were discontinuous (arrows in D' and D''). (E) Graph illustrating the coverage of GFAP within whole retinas. A significant increase in coverage was detected when comparing all of the strains to WT. A significant decrease in coverage was detected when comparing Fat3^−/− to Bax^−/− or Dscam^−/− mice. n ≥ 3 mice was used for each strain. Error bars: SD. A 1-way ANOVA was used to statistically analyze the data (P ≤ 2.69 × 10⁻¹³). Tukey's pairwise comparison was used to compare between groups. *Denotes statistical differences. Scale bars: (D) 200 μm, (D”) 20 μm. (D, inset), 44 × 44 μm.