Fig. 2: Knockdown of Porf-2 induces axon initiation and long-term axon regeneration after ONC injury.

A–C Representative confocal images of optic nerves in Porf-2-knockdown and control RGCs at 3 days, 7 days and 8 weeks post-ONC injury. Asterisks indicate the optic nerve crush site. Scale bar, 200 μm. D Representative confocal images of retinal sections showing RBPMS⁺ RGCs (magenta) from Porf-2 knockdown and control mice eight weeks after ONC injury. Scale bar, 20 μm. E Quantification of the RGC survival rate in D (Mann–Whitney test, p < 0.01; n = 6 mice in each group, at least eight non-adjacent retinal sections were analyzed for each retina). F–H Quantification of optic nerve regeneration at 3 days, 7 days and 8 weeks post-ONC (two-way ANOVA followed by Bonferroni’s multiple-comparisons test, n = 5 mice in each group). Data are presented as the mean±SEM. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001,****p < 0.0001. ns, not significant.