Fig. 1

Intravitreal injection of NMO-IgG induced AQP4 loss in retina. a Schematic timeline of the experimental design. b Immunofluorescence of AQP4 and human IgG in retinal flat mounts 3 days (D3) post-intravitreal injection of 2 µl purified HC-IgG or NMO-IgG in mice (Scale bar = 50 µm). c Confocal immunofluorescence images of retinal sections stained for AQP4 (red) and GS (green) with merged images (Scale bar = 20 µm). d Quantification of the relative fluorescence intensity corresponding to (c) (n = 4 per group). e Left: Immunofluorescence of AQP4 (green) and CD31 (red) in retinal flat mounts highlighting vascular structures positive for CD31. Middle: Enlarged views of the dashed box areas, which were used for plot profile measurements. Right: Signal channel views of AQP4 and CD31. f Line intensity profiles from (e) indicating reduced perivascular AQP4 expression. g Fluorescent staining of Tunnel in retinas treated with HC-IgG or NMO-IgG on day 7 after Intravitreal injection. h, i AQP4 (red) and MBP (green) in the proximal optic nerve at 21 days post-modeling. MBP visualizes myelin sheaths with no significant demyelination or AQP4 loss observed in the optic nerve (Scale bar = 20 µm). **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001, t-test