Research Paper Volume 12, Issue 13 pp 13437—13462
Loss of β-catenin via activated GSK3β causes diabetic retinal neurodegeneration by instigating a vicious cycle of oxidative stress-driven mitochondrial impairment
Figure 6. β-catenin is required for effects of GSK3β inhibition against oxidative stress-induced mitochondrial damage. (A) Relative mRNA expression of ROS scavenging genes in retinae from eyes treated with si-GSK3β+si-β-catenin (HFD+si-GSK3β/R-si-β-catenin) or si-GSK3β+si-sc (HFD+si-GSK3β/L-si-sc), respectively. (B) Activities of antioxidant enzymes in retinae. (C) Amounts of retinal 4-HNE. (D) Activities of retinal mitochondrial complex MRCC I-IV. Two retinae from 2 respective eyes in one group were pooled. Three independent experiments were performed in duplicate for each group. (E) Representative images of retinal TEM with mitochondria in IPL indicated with arrows. Areas boxed in are shown at higher magnification in lower panels. Scale bar, 0.5 μm. Data are means ± SEM. n = 4 eyes (A–C; E) or n = 6 eyes (D) per group. *P < 0.05 and **P < 0.01 vs contralateral eye injected with scramble si-sc.