Figure 1.
Changes in the expression of CNTF and LIF, as well as JAK/STAT3 pathway activation, in the murine retina after ONC and LI. A, Immunohistochemical staining of an untreated control retina (con), a retina 5 d after optic nerve crush (onc), and onc + lens injury (li) from wild-type mice as indicated using an anti-CNTF (red) and an anti-GFAP (green) antibody. Scale bar, 50 μm. GCL, ganglion cell layer; INL, inner nuclear layer. B, Western blot analysis of retinal lysates from wild-type (wt) and CNTF-deficient (cntf−/−) mice 5 d after onc, onc + li, or no previous treatment (con) using specific antibodies against GFAP, GAP43, LIF, phospho-STAT3 (pSTAT3), or CNTF. Tubulin served as a loading control. C, Immunohistochemical staining of astrocytes of an untreated control retina, a retina 5 d after onc, and after onc + li of wt and cntf−/− mice using an anti-LIF (R&D) (red) and anti-GFAP antibody (green). Scale bar, 25 μm. D, Quantitative real-time PCR. LIF expression levels were quantified relative to GAPDH in wt and cntf−/− mice 5 d after onc, onc + li, or untreated animals (−). *p < 0.05; ***p < 0.001. E, Western blot analysis of retinal lysates from CNTF/LIF double knock-out (cntf−/−/lif−/−) mice 5 d after onc, onc + li, or no previous treatment (−) using specific antibodies against GAP43, GFAP, and pSTAT3. Tubulin expression verified that the same amount of retinal protein was loaded per lane.