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. 2017 May 31;11:318. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2017.00318

Figure 2.

Figure 2

IL-6 deficiency mitigates axon degeneration caused by IOP elevation. (A,B) Representative 100X montaged optic nerve cross sections from WT (A) and IL-6-/- (B) optic nerves following saline (top) or microbead (bottom) injection. Black box in montaged image (left) corresponds to location of zoomed images highlighting axon and glia (right). IOP elevation results in increased glial infiltration (black arrows) and degenerative axon profiles (white arrow heads) in optic nerves from microbead injected WT, but not IL-6-/- mice. (C) Bar graph of average (mean ± STDEV) myelinated axon density measurements in WT and IL-6-/- mice following saline (white) or microbead (gray) injection. Saline- injected IL-6-/- mice show a genotype specific decrease in myelinated axon density compared to saline- injected WT mice. However, microbead- injected WT eyes show a significant 15% decrease in myelinated axon density compared to saline- injected WT eyes, while no difference is seen between microbead- and saline- injected IL-6-/- eyes. (D) Bar graph of average nerve area (mean ± STDEV) among groups shows no significant difference. *p < 0.05. n = 40–50 density measurements/genotype/group. Scale bars = 50 μm for 100X montaged optic nerves and 10 μm for zoomed images.