IL6 stimulates the rapid migration of microglia to vitread surface of the retinas.

<p>Retinas were obtained from eyes injected with vehicle (control; <b>a</b>, <b>g</b>–<b>i</b>) or IL6 at 1 (<b>b</b>), 3 (<b>c</b>), 4 (<b>d</b>, <b>j</b>–<b>l</b>) and 6 (<b>e</b>) hours after treatment. Whole-mount preparations of the retina were labeled with DRAQ5 (magenta; <b>g</b>–<b>i</b>) and antibodies to CD45 (<b>a</b>–<b>e</b> and <b>g</b>–<b>l</b>). The scale bar (50 µm) in panel <b>e</b> applies to <b>a</b>–<b>e</b>, and the bar in <b>l</b> applies to <b>g</b>–<b>l</b>. The histogram in panel <b>f</b> illustrates the mean (±SD) area for CD45-immunofluorescence above threshold, per field of view (42,400 µm²), at 1, 3, 4 and 6 hours after treatment. Image Pro 6.2 was used to measure the total area for pixel intensities >68 (0 = black, 255 = saturated green) per field of view, as described in the <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0044477#s4" target="_blank">Methods</a>. Significance of difference was determined by using a one-way ANOVA (p<0.0001). Significance of difference between control and treated groups (*p<0.0001), and between treatment time-points (bracket and p-values) was determined by using a post-hoc two-tailed Student’s t-test. Abbreviations: ONL – outer nuclear layer, INL – inner nuclear layer, IPL – inner plexiform layer, GCL – ganglion cell layer, NFL – nerve fiber layer.