TUNEL staining of the representative retinas.

<p>TUNEL staining of retinal sections 2 weeks after ONC (A–D). Only the dark red-stained cells in the ganglion cell layer were counted as TUNEL-positive cells. There were few TUNEL-positive cells seen in the sham group (A). TUNEL-positive cells were observed in the placebo group (B) and the H₂ saline group (C), and the chromatin was congregated on the cell border, with some cells forming apoptotic body morphology with a different shape. Note the significant increase (p<0.01) in the placebo group compared to the sham group, but the H₂ saline group had fewer apoptotic cells than the placebo (*p<0.05) (D).