Journal: International journal of molecular sciences
Article Title: Gas6 and Protein S Ligands Cooperate to Regulate MerTK Rhythmic Activity Required for Circadian Retinal Phagocytosis.
doi: 10.3390/ijms25126630
Figure Lengend Snippet: Figure 2. Gas6 and Protein S bioavailabilities peak at different times of the light–dark cycle. Analysis of the mRNA (A,C) and protein (B,D) expression profiles for Gas6 (A,B) and Protein S (C,D) in the RPE/choroid, retina, or IPM for wildtype (wt, blue) and β5−/−mice (β5 ko, pink) at different times of day as indicated. (A) qPCR experiments allowed us to show that Gas6 mRNA expression levels are slightly increased just before (retina) and after (RPE/choroid) the phagocytic peak in wt mice. Gas6 expression levels were lower in the RPE/choroid of β5−/−mice between peak phagocytosis time and 22.00 while levels were unchanged in the retina fraction. (B) Corresponding protein quantification and representative immunoblots in the IPM of fellow eyes showed a decrease at light onset followed by a marked increase at the time of the phagocytic peak in wt animals. In β5−/−mice, expression levels did not vary. (C) Pros1 mRNA expression increases just before and at the time of peak phagocytosis in wt RPE/choroid and retina, respectively. In both tissue samples, a second peak occurs at night offset (retina) of just after (RPE/choroid). The 7.00 and 22.00 RPE/choroid peaks, as well as the phagocytosis retina peak, are lost in β5−/−mice, but median levels are not changed. (D) Corresponding protein quantification and representative immunoblots in the IPM of fellow eyes follows a combination of RPE/choroid and retina gene expression profiles depicted in (C). Results are in arbitrary units (a.u.) as means ± SDs, n = 3–8 independent samples; reference: wildtype sample at 8.00. * p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01, *** p < 0.001, and **** p < 0.0001; two-way ANOVA with a Sidak post-test comparing wildtype and β5−/−samples at each time-point. Black bars: time-points during which lights were on (8.00–20.00); grey dotted bar, black tick: phagocytosis peak.
Article Snippet: Gas6 recombinant proteins (mouse, 986-GS), as well as anti-mouse antibodies raised in goats against Gas6 (AF986) and MFG-E8 (AF2805), were from R&D Systems (BioTechne, Noyal-Châtillon-sur-Seiche, France).
Techniques: Expressing, Western Blot, Gene Expression