Fig. 2

Self-renewal capacity of mouse eye-wall c-kit⁺/SSEA1⁻ cells. (A, B) Phase-contrast image of a representative putative clone of c-kit⁺/SSEA1⁻ cells (A) and the clone with immunofluorescence staining for c-kit (green; B). (C) Growth curve of c-kit⁺/SSEA1⁻ cells over a 7-day period. (D, E) 5-Bromo-2'-deoxyuridine (BrdU) labeling (D) and terminal deoxy nucleotidyl transferase-mediated nick end labeling (TUNEL; E) staining of c-kit⁺/SSEA1⁻ cells on the 7th day showed that the cells kept in active proliferation and the level of apoptosis was quite low. (F, G) After 20 passages, c-kit⁺/SSEA1⁻ cells retained expression of Ki67 (F) and telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT; G). (F′, G′) Representative flow cytometry plots showing the expression of Ki67 (69.4%; F′) and TERT (79.5%; G′). DAPI 4′,6-diamidino-2-phenylindole. Scale bars represent 400 μm (A, B) and 50 μm (D–G) (Color figure online)