Fig. 5.

Integration and materials exchange of grafted C-Kit⁺ cells. a EGFP⁺ cells in ONL of the RCS rat retina at PO 4w. b, c EGFP⁺ cells showing typical photoreceptor morphology in outer segment at PO 4w. d, e Photoreceptor marker identification demonstrated by immunostaining for rhodopsin and recoverin at PO 4w. f, g Outer segment staining of rod Gnat-1 and cone arrestin at PO 4w. h Orthogonal projection of synaptophysin staining between EGFP⁺ cells and host inner retina at PO 4w. i, j EGFP⁺photoreceptor terminal (small white arrowhead) touching synaptic protein CTBP-2 and lying in close proximity to bipolar cells with PKCα staining at PO 4w. k–n EGFP⁺ cells in the ONL co-stained with a human-specific MTCO2 mitochondrial antibody (red arrowheads) (k, l) and a human-specific HuNu nuclear antibody (white arrowheads) (m, n), confirming the human origin. o EGFP⁺ cells in the ONL without MTCO2 or HuNu co-staining (yellow arrowheads). p Statistical analysis of the number of the EGFP⁺ and EGFP⁺/HuNu⁻ cells in the ONL. 6 ± 2% EGFP⁺/HuNu⁺ cells and 94 ± 5% EGFP⁺/HuNu⁻ cells in ONL (n = 814 cells from three eyes). q–t EGFP⁺ cells at PO 8w showing co-expression with the retinal pigment epithelial cell marker RPE65 (q), the bipolar cell marker PKCα (r), the retinal ganglion cell marker Brn3a (s) and the Müller cell marker GFAP (t). Data are presented as mean ± SEM. Scale bars, 100 μm (a), 20 μm (h, i, q–t), 10 μm (b–g, j–o). RGCL retinal ganglion cell layer, IPL inner plexiform layer, OPL outer plexiform layer, RPEL retinal pigment epithelium layer