Fig. 5

TLR2 KO mice exhibit attenuated corneal nerve loss alongside IL-6 downregulation after injury, compared to wild-type or TLR4 KO mice. A, B Representative corneal photographs with fluorescein staining in wild-type (C57BL/6J), TLR2 KO and TLR4 KO mice at 7 d post-injury (A). Quantitative analysis of corneal opacity and epithelial defect at 7 d post-injury (B). C–F Corneal whole-mount images stained with β-tubulin III (C) and Ly6G (E) at 7 d post-injury. Quantitative analysis of corneal innervation (D) and cornea-infiltrating Ly6G⁺ cells and Ly6C⁺ cells (F) at 7 d post-injury. G, H Representative flow cytometry cytograms (G) and quantitative analysis of CD11b^hiLy6G^hi cells and CD11b^hiLy6C^hiLy6G^lo cells in blood at 7 d post-injury (H). I mRNA levels of IL-1β and IL-6 in cornea and blood cells as measured by real-time RT-PCR. Values are shown relative to those in wild-type mice without injury. Mean values ± SD are presented, and each circle represents the data from an individual mouse. A white circle indicates the data from wild-type C57BL/6J mouse without injury, a blue circle from C57BL/6J mouse with injury, a red circle from TLR2 KO mouse with injury, and a green circle from TLR4 KO mouse with injury. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001, ****p < 0.0001, ns: not significant, as analyzed by one-way ANOVA and Tukey’s test or by Kruskal–Wallis test and Dunn’s multiple-comparison test (Ly6G⁺ cell in F, IL-6 (Cornea) in I)