Fig. 2
Overexpression of HMOX1 following high dose AAV8-HMOX1 infection disrupts retinal function and leads to retinal degeneration. a Western blots (upper panels) show the expression of HMOX1 in retinas from albino mice 2 weeks after infection with a low (5 × 108 genome copies/eye) or a high dose (2 × 109 genome copies /eye) of AAV-HMOX1 virus and bar graphs showing quantification of HMOX1 expression according to results of the immunoblots (Error bars: SD; n = 3, one-way ANOVA). b Anti-HMOX1 immunostaining of frozen sections of retinas from albino mice 2 weeks after infection. c ERG scotopic traces of rod response (upper panels) and standard response (lower panels) of albino mice under the indicated conditions. d Quantification of a- and b-wave amplitudes according to results of the above ERG scotopic traces (Error bars: SD; n = 6, one-way ANOVA). e Histological structure of retinas from albino mice 2 weeks after infection with low or high dose of AAV-HMOX1 virus. f Quantification of the thickness of the photoreceptor cell layer (including outer nuclear layer, inner segment layer and outer segment layer) from mice under the indicated conditions (Error bars: SD; n = 6, one-way ANOVA). AAV-HMOX1 L, low dose of AAV-HMOX1; AAV-HMOX1 H, high dose of AAV-HMOX1; ONL: outer nuclear layer; IS: photoreceptor inner segments; OS: photoreceptor outer segments; ns indicates no significant difference. * or ** indicates p < 0.05 or p < 0.01. Scale bars: 50 μm