Figure 3.

At 6 months after grafting, in the absence of dexamethasone treatment, hRPC injection slows the progressive decline of visual function and ONL thickness in RCS dystrophic rats. (A) Visual function was preserved at the lowest spatial frequency (0.125 C/D), with a significant effect of eye and post hoc significance restricted to eyes injected with 100 K hRPC. (B) At 0.25 C/D, eye remained a significant factor but there was no further significance at the post hoc level. (C) At the finest grating frequency tested (0.5 C/D), dystrophic rats were unable to track with the uninjected right eyes and although some left eye–driven tracking occurred, no significant differences were detectable. (D) Representative histology images from the left eyes (L) of vehicle-injected (0 K) and cell-injected (10–200 K) animals 26 weeks after grafting showing ONL preservation (arrows). (E) The ONL was significantly preserved in left eyes injected with ≥100K cells (compared to uninjected right eyes). Graphs show the mean ± SEM, with *P < 0.05 and **P < 0.01 by Bonferroni's comparison. DAPI staining in blue, animal numbers in € match those used in (A–C). Scale bars: 50 μm.