Figure 2.

Increase in the mRNA expression of the complement components in the retina following NaIO₃ treatment. (A) The transcript quantity of the components of the complement pathway (GO: 0006956) was changed in the retinas after the NaIO₃ treatment at day 3. Nodes are the genes with their connections as defined in STRING database version 10, and the colour is given by the fold change (log2FC = 4) of the regulation (red = up, white = no regulation). (B) The fold change (log₂) mRNA expression levels of the general (c3 and c3ar1), classical (c1s and c4) and alternative (cfb) pathway components were analysed in independent experiments using either RNA-seq or RT-qPCR. The retinal tissue was harvested at day 3 (RNA-seq analysis, n = 5) or day 3 and day 10 (RT-qPCR, n = 6) after NaIO₃ application. RNA-seq gene expression was normalised to the overall gene set. The RT-qPCR expression was normalised to the idh3b reference mRNA. Fold change in the expression (compared to the untreated control, line at y = 0) was calculated on the logarithm to base 2. The gene expressions of treated versus untreated retinas were evaluated using ordinary one-way ANOVA and Tukey’s multiple comparisons test (* 0.01 < p < 0.05, ** 0.001 < p < 0.01, *** 0.0001 < p < 0.001 and **** p < 0.0001).