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. 2021 Oct 22;11:20891. doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-99805-9

Figure 5.

Figure 5

Tear fluid growth factors level in KC patients: The graphs indicate the concentration of TGFβ1 (a), bFGF (b), HGF (c), EPO (d), PDGF-AA (e), PDGF-BB (f) and VEGF-A (g) in the tear fluid of subjects with different grades of KC. Ctrls—Controls; All-KC—all the grades of keratoconus combined; FFKC—Forme fruste keratoconus; bFGF—basic fibroblast growth factor; HGF—Hepatocyte growth factor; EPO—erythropoietin; PDGF—Platelet-derived growth factor; TGFb1—Transforming Growth Factor Beta 1; VEGF—Vascular endothelial growth factor; SEM—standard error of the mean; Controls (20 eyes), All-KC (41 eyes), FFKC (6 eyes), grade 1 KC (6 eyes), grade 2 KC (6 eyes), grade 3 or 4 (23 eyes); Bar graphs represent Mean ± SEM; *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01,***P < 0.001, ****P < 0.0001, Mann–Whitney test.