Immediate upregulation of proteins belonging to different branches of the apoptotic cascade in the retina after optic nerve transection and optic nerve crush.

Purpose: To further investigate the molecular signals underlying optic nerve (ON) injury, the authors analyzed in adult control, ON-transected, and ON-crushed retinas the expression pattern and time-course regulation of the following proteins, all of which are linked to apoptosis through different pathways: Stat 1, caspase 11 (inflammation and death), cathepsins C and B (lysosomal death pathway), calpain 1 (endoplasmic reticulum stress), calreticulin (apoptosis marker), Jun (early response), and aryl hydrocarbon receptor (cell cycle arrest).

Methods: Adult female rats were subjected to intraorbital optic nerve transection (IONT) or intraorbital optic nerve crush (IONC). Protein from naive and ON-injured adult rat retinas was extracted at different times postlesion, and Western blotting experiments were performed.

Time course profiling of the retinal transcriptome after optic nerve transection and optic nerve crush.

Purpose: A time-course analysis of gene regulation in the adult rat retina after intraorbital nerve crush (IONC) and intraorbital nerve transection (IONT).

Methods: RNA was extracted from adult rat retinas undergoing either IONT or IONC at increasing times post-lesion. Affymetrix RAE230.