FIGURE 5.

Endogenous somatostatin participates in the fate determination of photoreceptor precursor. (A) UMAP plot showing the restricted expression of SST in RGC. (B) Schematic diagram showing the retinal organoids transduced with shSST lentivirus at Day 80 and harvested for observation after two weeks. (C) Quantification of SST expression level showing the knockdown efficiency by qPCR. **p < 0.01. (D,E) Immunohistochemical images show reduced rod photoreceptors marked by NR2E3 and increased cone photoreceptors stained with RXRG and PDE6H after knocking down somatostatin. Scale bar = 50 μm. (F) Quantification of NR2E3⁺ cells revealed a significant decrease in the shSST group compared to scramble (SCR). *p < 0.05. (G) Quantification of PDE6H⁺ cells revealed a significant increase in the shSST group compared to the SCR group. *p < 0.05