Figure 7. Retinal degeneration in 3-week-old rd10 mice injected with buffer saline sodium (BSS) or human transferrin (hTf). A-C: Retinal central sections represent histology of 25-day-old rd10 mice injected with BSS (A) or 24 mg/ml (B) and 48 mg/ml of hTf (C). Nuclei were stained with toluidin blue. D-E: Outer nuclear layer (ONL; D) and inner nuclear layer (INL; E) thickness were measured every 200 μm, along the whole retinal section from 5-day-old rd10 mice daily injected intraperitoneally with BSS and 24 and 48 mg/ml of hTf, and sacrificed at 25 days postnatally. (black line) rd10 mice injected with BSS, (light gray line) rd10 mice injected with 24 mg/ml of hTf, (dark gray line) rd10 mice injected with 48 mg/ml of hTf. Values represent means±SEM, n=5–8. D: rd10 mice injected with 24 mg/ml of hTf were compared to mice injected with BSS: * p<0.05; **p<0.001; ***p<0.0001; ns represent not significant. rd10 mice injected with 48 mg/ml of hTf were compared to mice injected with BSS: ***p<0.0001. rd10 mice injected with 48 mg/ml of hTf were compared to mice injected with 24 mg/ml of hTf: ≠ p<0.05; ≠≠ p<0.001; ≠≠≠ p<0.0001; ns: not significant. E: The differences are mainly insignificant (ON: optic nerve). F-K: Terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase dUTP nick end labeling (TUNEL) was used to stain retina from mice intraperitoneally injected every day since day 5 with BSS (F), or with 24 mg/ml of hTf (H) and 48 mg/ml (J) of hTf, and sacrificed at 25 days postnatally. Nuclei were stained with 4’,6 Diamidino-2-phenyl-indole (DAPI) on retinal sections from rd10 mice injected with BSS (G), 24 (I) and 48 mg/ml (K) of hTf. Abbreviations: GCL is ganglion cell layer; INL is inner nuclear layer; ONL is outer nuclear layer; RPE is retinal pigmented epithelium. Scale bars in A-C and F-K equal=100 μm.