Fig. 10

Treatment with oxATP reduces Gfap mRNA expression after crush injury. To evaluate purinergic signaling in the crush paradigm, wild-type mice were treated with oxATP either prior to or after optic nerve crush, and evaluated for macroglial expression of Gfap 7 days after injury. a Treatment with oxATP 1 day prior to optic nerve crush reduced Gfap transcript levels by about 50 %, relative to the PBS-injected eyes. b–d Despite the decline in Gfap mRNA levels, the upregulation of GFAP protein by Müller cells was not inhibited with oxATP pre-treatment. e A post-treatment of oxATP delivered 3 days after crush also reduced Gfap expression by about 50 %. f–h The post-treatment was also ineffective at reducing Müller cell activation, as fibers of GFAP were still clearly present through the retinal layers, and did not appear dramatically different than the PBS-treated retinas. Interestingly, oxATP in both treatment groups appeared to reduce the intensity of GFAP expression in the nerve fiber layer, suggesting oxATP may selectively affect astrocyte expression of the filament protein in the crush paradigm. a, e Data is presented as mean ± SD. *P < 0.001. Scale bar 50 μm. For each treatment group, n ≥ 3 for quantitative analysis by QPCR, n = 3 for immunofluorescent labeling