Figure 5. The effect of atropine and ADTN
on ZENK transcript levels in the retina following 1 h of
negative-lens wear. Negative-lens wear, for a period of 1h, induced
significant down-regulation in ZENK transcript levels (ANOVA; F
(4, 20)=4.24, p<0.05; t-test, p<0.05, respectively), as
compared to normal untreated values, which was unaffected by the
injection of either vehicle solution (distilled waster or ascorbic
acid) immediately before lens fitting (t-test; p=0.7 and p=0.8,
respectively). However, injection of atropine or ADTN immediately
before the attachment of lenses induced significant upregulation in
retinal ZENK expression above baseline levels (ANOVA; F (3,
14)=6.32, p<0.05; t-test, p<0.05, respectively). Atropine
or ADTN did not affect retinal ZENK expression when injected
into a normal untreated age-matched eye (ANOVA; F (3,14)=0.78, p=0.11; t-test,
p=0.15,
p=0.10, respectively). The mean normalized expression is
calculated from the efficiency (E) of the target genes to the
power of its average CT value (ECT target), divided
by the efficiency (E) of the reference gene (Actb) to the
power of its average CT value (ECT reference). Error
bars represent SEM, n=6 (*p<0.05).