Fig. 7

Morphological modifications in the inner retina of the rd1 mice after eye-wall c-kit⁺/SSEA1⁻ cell transplantation. Representative images of rd1 mice injected with c-kit⁺/SSEA1⁻ cells at 4 weeks (C, F) and 8 weeks (H, J) after transplantation and age-matched control mice including wild-type (WT) mice (A, D) and rd1 mice injected with phosphate-buffered saline (PBS; B, E, G, I). WT mice showed protein kinase C alpha (PKCα)-positive bipolar cells (A) and Calbindin (Calb)-positive horizontal cells (D) in the inner nuclear layer (INL). The PBS control group showed that the projections of PKCα-positive bipolar cells and Calb-positive horizontal cells appeared sparse, short, and disorganized (B, E, 4 weeks; G, I, 8 weeks). More PKCα-immunoreactive projections were observed between engrafted c-kit⁺/SSEA1⁻ cells and host bipolar cells at 4 weeks (C) and 8 weeks (H) post transplantation. Calb-positive fine-size processes remained when connecting incorporated donor cell-derived photoreceptors at 4 weeks (F) and 8 weeks (J) post transplantation. DAPI 4′,6-diamidino-2-phenylindole, ONL outer nuclear layer, GCL ganglion cell layer, QD quantum nanocrystal dot. Scale bars represent 10 μm (Color figure online)