Fig. 3

Glial lamina integrity remains unaltered in diabetic mice. (A) Schematic diagram illustrating the experimental approach to evaluate the integrity of the glial lamina using intravitreally administered dextran tracer. (B) Representative macroscopic images of optic nerves after dextran tracer injection into the vitreous humor. The image brightness was increased to show the optic nerve outlined by the high autofluorescence signal. (C) Total tracer signal over the entire length of the optic nerve at two (left) and four (right) months after onset of diabetes (n = 5–6). (D) Plot of total fluorescent tracer signal (A.U.), (E) peak signal intensity and (F) peak signal travel distance. Distance ascending from the eyeball. N = 5–6, ns = P > 0.05 between indicated groups by two-way ANOVA with Tukey’s correction (D-F). (G) Representative confocal images of retina cross sections showing the optic nerve head region and dextran tracer (3 kDa) distribution. White dashed line indicates glial lamina region. Scale bar 50 μm. (H) Standard TEM images of glial lamina in cross section. Scale bar 10 μm, n = 2. All graphs show mean ± SD