Figure 1.

Expression patterns of Aggrecan, Versican, Neurocan and Phosphacan in wildtype mice over time. (a)–(d) histograms showing mean (+ /− SEM) mRNA levels of Acan (a), Vcan (b), Ncan (c) and Ptprz1 (d) in whole retinae. (e) best-fit curves summarizing the changes in expression of all four CSPGs over time. (Lognormal for Acan and Vcan, one phase decay for Ncan and Ptprz1.) (f) a schematic of the regions where immunostaining images were taken. (g) Immunostaining for Aggrecan, Versican, Neurocan and Phosphacan (red) over time. (a) Relative expression of Acan mRNA increased between P10 and 3 weeks, decreasing thereafter and remained at a similar level throughout adulthood. (b) Vcan expression was fairly constant across the time points examined, reducing at 3 and 6 months, although inter-sample variation was high. (c) (d) Ncan and Ptprz1 mRNA expression decreased significantly with time. (e) Neurocan-C and -N fractions and Versican were sparsely distributed throughout all the layers of retina when they are expressed. Phosphacan and Aggrecan were restricted mostly to the GCL, IPL and OPL. Images show confocal maximum projection images (MIPs) of the superior retina in the equatorial region. Scale bar, 100 µm. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001, ****p < 0.0001 (one-way ANOVA test with Bonferroni’s correction). ONL—outer nuclear layer; OPL—outer plexiform layer; INL—inner nuclear layer; IPL—inner plexiform layer; GCL—ganglion cell layer. Nuclei are counter stained with Dapi -blue; CSPGs -red.