Figure 5.

Mitochondrial localization is normal 3 months after cessation of smoke exposure. Mitochondrial position was determined from electron micrographs (depicted in Fig. 3) by determining their centroid coordinates as a percentage of the corresponding retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) length and thickness, respectively. Each centroid was subsequently assigned to one of four bins (basolateral, basal, central, or apical) and expressed as percent of total mitochondria (MITO). Mitochondria are localized predominantly to the basolateral and basal compartments of the RPE cells with fewer localized in the central and apical portions in never smokers. While we previously reported that cigarette smoke exposure (CSE) affects the mitochondrial distribution in C57BL/6J mice after 6 months,²¹ with mitochondria exhibiting an apical shift from the basal to central compartment, mitochondrial distribution is back to normal 3 months after the cessation of CSE (smoke + PBS), and is not further affected by complement inhibition (smoke + CR2-fH).