Fig. 7

Effect of aged bone-marrow cells in subretinal fibrosis in young mice. A Schematic view of the study design. Bone-marrow cells from 22-month Ly5.2 donor mice were transplanted into the young (2.5-month) X-ray irradiated recipient mice via tail vein injection (Aged Ly5.2(CD45.2) → Young Ly5.1 (CD45.1). 6 weeks later, flow cytometry was carried out to assess the immune system reconstitution in the blood of recipient mice. The mice were subjected to subretinal fibrosis induction. Eyes were collected for immunohistochemistry 4 weeks after the second laser. B Representative flow cytometry dot plot showing CD45.1 and CD45.2 expression in the aged donor, and young recipient mice before and 6 weeks after BMT. C–D Representative confocal images of RPE/choroid flatmounts stained for collagen-1 (red) and CD31 (green) from 4-month-old non-BMT young controls (C) and BMT young mice (D). Cell nuclei were stained with DAPI (blue). Scale bar = 50 um. (E) Magnified area of box in D showing CD31⁺ blood vessels in collagen-1⁺ fibrotic lesions. F Quantitative analysis of collagen-1⁺ lesion area in 5-month-old non-BMT controls and 5-month-old BMT mice. Mean ± SD, n = 27 lesions per group from 7 to 8 eyes, **p < 0.01, Student t test