Upregulation of trophic factors.

<p>A. Semi-quantitative RT-PCR for CNTF, bFGF, BDNF and beta actin. Lane 1: RNA isolated from MSC prior to injection; Lane 2–4: RNA isolated from retinas treated with MSC; Lane 5–7: RNA isolated from non-treated control retinas. B. Densitometry analysis of CNTF, BDNF and bFGF in treated versus untreated samples. Beta actin was used to normalize the data for comparison. Level of CNTF and BDNF in the treated retinas were significantly higher than non-treated controls (p<0.05), while the level of bFGF in MSC treated retina did not increase significantly. C–J: confocal images of retinal sections double stained with antibodies to CNTF (green) and GFAP (red), counterstained with DAPI (blue in C and G) from MSC treated and controls. Strong CNTF staining in MSC treated retina (D) compared with untreated control (H); E&I: retinal sections stained with GFAP (red) showing upregulation of GFAP in Müller glia in both MSC treated and untreated control; F&J: merged images showing colocalization of CNTF and GFAP in MSC treated retina (F), which was not observed in untreated control (J) (Scale bar equals 50 µm).