Figure 3. Comparison of the post-crush cell loss in the retinal ganglion cell layer between WT and Sigmar1^−/− mice. A-D: Nissl-stained retinal whole-mounts from WT (A and B) and Sigmar1^−/− (C and D) mice. Images were from representative fields (1,000×) of the mid-peripheral inferior retinas of 12-month-old mice. For each mouse, while the right eye served as untreated control (A and C), the left eye was treated by optic nerve crush for 3 s (B and D). Retinal whole-mounts were prepared 7 days after surgery, and the side of the ganglion cell layer was stained. Healthy ganglion cells exhibited larger somas and nuclei with prominent nucleoli. Arrows point to apoptotic cells. E: Quantification of cells remaining in the retinal ganglion cell layer one week after surgery. The number of remaining cells in the experimental eye is represented as a percentage of the untreated control. The data were pooled from three WT and Sigmar1^−/− pairs of 6-month-old mice and two pairs of 12-month-old mice. There were 86.82±7.90% (mean±standard deviation [SD], n=5) cells remaining in WT mice and 68.31±3.36% remaining in Sigmar1^−/− mice. ** t-test, p=0.0013.