Fig. 7.

Riboflavin deficiency results in RPE dystrophy. (A) RPE flat-mounts collected at P240 from RDC fed mice show significant intracellular localization of β-catenin (green) (arrowheads) away from the plasma membrane, disruption of regular hexagonal cell shape, RPE hypertrophy, and frequent multinucleation (asterisks) compared to RC fed mice. Each experiment was performed three times on independent samples. (B) RPE cells were counted and plotted from flat-mounts stained in (A), **p < 0.01 by t-test, plotted is mean ± SEM. (C-D) Staining of retinal cross sections for Ezrin (green) and Rtbdn (red) (C) and RPE65 (green) (D) indicates that RPE cells are still differentiated in RDC. Notice the redistribution of ezrin in RDC fed RPE (white arrows, bottom of C). Rtbdn disappears in retinas from P240 RDC while it is seen in retinal sections from RC mice, localized basal to ezrin, which labels the microvilli of the RPE (C). RPE, Retinal pigment epithelium; OS, outer segment, IS, inner segment, OS, outer segment; ONL. (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the Web version of this article.)