Fig. 6
LCN2 knockdown protected the retinal structure and function in vivo. A-C Hematoxylin and eosin staining and quantitative analysis, showing that AAV-shLCN2 ameliorated the reduction in the thickness and the number of nuclei rows of ONL at 7 days after light exposure (LE). GCL: ganglion cell layer; INL: inner nuclear layer; ONL: outer nuclear layer. Scale bars = 50 μm. D‒H ERG was used to detect retinal function under scotopic and photopic conditions at 7 days after LE. Representative scotopic ERG at 1 cd·s/m2 and photopic ERG at 10 cd·s/m2 were shown (D). For scotopic ERG, rats were stimulated with flashes of ranging light intensity (0.01, 0.1, 1, 3 and 10 cd·s/m2). Under baseline conditions, no statistically significant differences were observed in scotopic a-wave or b-wave amplitudes between the control group and the AAV-shNC group across all tested stimulus intensities (0.01, 0.1, 1, 3, and 10 cd·s/m2; E and F). Following LE treatment, the AAV-shNC + LE group demonstrated marked attenuation of both a-wave and b-wave amplitudes compared to the AAV-shNC group at every intensity level (black **P < 0.01 vs. AAV-shNC). Notably, AAV-shLCN2 administration in the AAV-shLCN2 + LE group exhibited statistically significant recovery of a-wave and b-wave amplitudes compared to the AAV-shNC + LE group at every intensity level (red *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01 vs. AAV-shNC + LE). For photopic ERG, rats were stimulated with light intensity of 10 cd·s/m2. AAV-shLCN2 significantly suppressed the reductions in the amplitudes of the a and b waves at light intensity of 10 cd·s/m2 under photopic conditions (G and H). n = 6 per group. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01. One-way ANOVA followed by Tukey’s post hoc test