Fig. 4

Experiment 2: Changes to immune cells after 6-hours of topical treatment (i.e., 3 × doses, 2 hours apart). a–c Representative immunofluorescence images from the peripheral corneas of naïve (a), decorin-treated injured (b) and saline-treated injured (c) eyes. Arrows indicate intraepithelial CD45⁺ DCs. Scale bar in c (100 μm) applies to a–c. d Density of DCs in the peripheral corneal epithelium after 6 h of treatment. e–h Representative confocal images of CD45⁺ Iba1⁺ cells in the peripheral corneal stroma. Scale bar in h (50 μm) applies to e–h. i A higher magnification and merged image of the boxed area in e and f. Arrowheads indicate CD45⁺ Iba1⁺ stromal macrophages; asterisks indicate CD45⁺ Iba1⁻ neutrophils. j A higher magnification image of the boxed area in g. Asterisks indicate distinct polymorphonuclear appearance of neutrophil nuclei. k, l Density of macrophages and neutrophils in the peripheral corneal stroma after 6 h of treatment. Summary data are shown as mean ± SD. Each data point represents one cornea. Red symbols in f–i represent the contralateral eye of the decorin-treated eye. Asterisk indicates a statistically significant difference between eyes with and without decorin treatment. P values for each of the inter-group comparisons are provided in Table 2. Legend: DCN, decorin; Gel, fluid gel