Fig. 2

Macrophage fate mapping shows that retinal surface macrophages are self-renewing cells. Representative retina sections of Mac^GFP mice at 1 week (A–C) or 4 weeks (D–F) after tamoxifen administration. Channels are separated showing merged (A, D), DAPI and GFP (B, E), or DAPI and IBA1 (C, F) staining. Red arrows highlight GFP⁺ cells and yellow arrows highlighting GFP^neg cells. Surface macrophages are significantly less GFP⁺ than plexiform macrophages (G, p < 0.05, two-way ANOVA followed by Šídák's multiple comparisons test). No changes between Week 1 and Week 4 GFP⁺ cells were detected (G). N = 3 mice per group from 1 experiment. Two litters were consecutively treated with tamoxifen. One litter was killed at 1 week and the second litter was killed 1 month post-tamoxifen