Figure 6

Effects of rapamycin. A. IOP values in rat eyes treated or untreated with rapamycin. Two sets of rats were injected with GFP (green and blue bars) or E50K-GFP (orange and yellow bars) viral vector. One set (blue and yellow bars) received intraperitoneal injection of rapamycin. The other set did not receive rapamycin treatment as controls. No change in IOP was observed without or with rapamycin treatment. B. Bar graphs depict total retinal ganglion cell counts per retina in retinal whole mounts from GFP or E50K-GFP viral vector injected eyes. One set of the animals received rapamycin treatment. Results are presented as mean ± SEM (n = 4 for GFP and n = 10 for E50K groups). C. Representative high-power view (100x) of optic nerve axon cross sections from eyes collected 5 weeks following intravitreal injection of GFP or E50K-GFP viral vector without or with treatment of rapamycin (left panel). Scale bar, 20 μm. Total axon counts in different groups are shown in the bar graph (right panel). D. Percentage of apoptotic cells in the retinal ganglion cell layer (left panel) in sections from GFP or E50K-GFP viral vector injected eyes without or with rapamycin (GFP + Rapamycin or GFP + Rapa, E50K + Rapamycin or E50K + Rapa) treatment. E. Immunostaining of optineurin (OPTN), p62, PSMB5, and LC3 (in red) in GFP and E50K-GFP injected eyes without or with rapamycin treatment. Scale bar, 25 μm. F. Bar graph depicts the staining intensity (mean ± SEM, n ≥ 3) of OPTN, p62, PSMB5, and LC3 in retinal ganglion cell layer in each treatment group relative to that of the GFP control group. *, P < 0.015; #, P < 0.05 compared to GFP no treatment controls.