Figure 2. Cone function decline, the onset of vascular changes, and blood-retina barrier and blood flow disruption in retinal degeneration.

(A) Behavior assessment of mouse vision. (B) Cone-mediated behavior persisted in rd10 mice until P160. The same animals (13 WT and 20 rd10, ANOVA) were measured in a longitudinal manner (both eyes of the same mouse were measured separately at each time point; only one eye’s measures were plotted in the figure). (C) Longitudinal analysis of variations between 2 eyes in a given rd10 mouse shows that extent of the vision decline varied across the 2 eyes of the same animal (3 different rd10 mice, 2-tailed t test). (D) In vivo confocal assessment revealed constricted vasculature and compromised blood-retina barrier (BRB) in RD. Small images are magnified areas of retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) and the deep retinal vascular layers. (E) Rate of capillary retina blood cell (RBC) flow at P35, measured as a number of cells crossing a red line in D. Each cell crossing is represented by a deflection and is reduced in rd10 mice at P35. (F) Comparison of diameters from images in D, showed narrowing (bottom) and uneven constriction of blood vessels, as measured by SD from means (top) in RD (arrows in D). (G) Averaged vascular diameter was significantly smaller in rd10 mice Error bars ± SD (4–5 mice, 2-tailed t test). (H) Vascular leak progressively increased in RD in the RPE and deep vascular layers (4–5 mice, 2-tailed t test). Scale bars: 100 μm (D); 25 μm (E). Error bars ± SD (4–5 mice). *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001.