Figure 8.

The secretable TatNrf2mer has anti-inflammatory properties in a mouse model of ocular inflammation. (A) ARPE-19 stably expressing PuroR (Vector) or TatNrf2mer-PuroR (TatNrf2mer) were incubated with or without 30 μM 4-hydroxynonenal (4-HNE) for 18 hours. The concentration of IL-1β in the conditioned media was quantified in triplicate by ELISA. (B) C57BL/6J mice were injected intravitreally with 3 × 10⁹ vgc of AAV vector delivering either GFP or sGFP-TatNrf2mer (TatNrf2mer). One month later mice were injected intravitreally with 25 ng LPS and then were euthanized 24 hours later. Their eyes were harvested and analyzed by histology. Representative images of hematoxylin and eosin–stained sections of eyes injected with either GFP (top) or TatNrf2mer vectors are shown (bottom). (C) The number of cells within the vitreous of at least two sections per eye were quantified by two independent subjects who were not aware of the treatments. Eyes injected with the TatNrf2mer AAV vector had significantly lower numbers of infiltrating cells within the vitreous body than the eyes injected with the GFP AAV vector. Values are reported as average ± SEM (n = 2 biologic replicates in [A], n = 5 mice in [C]).