Fig. 5

Microglia numbers are stable during a dramatic period of cell clearance. a, b CD45^low populations were gated on Ly6C and Cx3CR1 expression; MHC-II was used to distinguish microglia from resident macrophages, and CD45-IV was used to remove cells within or associated with the vasculature. c Microglia, the resident MHC-II^low cells, remained at constant for the first 72 h, then increased at 96 h (lavender). d The number of resident MHC-II^high cells was also stable until 96 h (dark purple). Together, these data show that the number of resident immune cells is stable during early retinal degeneration. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001; error bars are SEM, n = 6–9 retinas per time point