Fig. 1: Knockdown of Porf-2 promotes RGC survival and axon regeneration after ONC injury.

A Diagram of the experimental design. B Confocal images of optic nerves in young mice injected with AAV2-shPorf-2 (shPorf-2-RNA1 and shPorf-2-RNA2) or AAV2-shCtrl two weeks after ONC injury. Asterisks indicate the optic nerve crush site. Scale bar, 200 μm. C Quantification of optic nerve regeneration in (B) (two-way ANOVA followed by Bonferroni’s multiple-comparisons test, p < 0.0001 at 0.2, 0.50, and 1.00 mm from the crush site; n = 8 mice in each group). D Representative confocal images of retinal sections showing RBPMS⁺ RGCs (magenta) in young Porf-2-knockdown and control mice two weeks after ONC injury. Scale bar, 20 μm. E Quantification of the RGC survival rate in (D) (Mann–Whitney test, n = 6 mice in each group, at least eight non-adjacent retinal sections were analyzed for each mouse). F Confocal images of optic nerves in 12-month-old mice injected with AAV2-shPorf-2 (shPorf-2-RNA2) or AAV2-shCtrl two weeks after ONC injury. Asterisks indicate the optic nerve crush site. Scale bar, 200 μm. G Quantification of optic nerve regeneration in (F) (two-way ANOVA followed by Bonferroni’s multiple-comparisons test, p < 0.0001 at 0.2, 0.50, and 1.00 mm from the crush site; p < 0.01 at 1.5 mm from the crush site; n = 8 mice in each group). H Representative confocal images of retinal sections showing RBPMS⁺ RGCs (magenta) in 12-month-old Porf-2-knockdown (shPorf-2-RNA2) and control mice two weeks after ONC injury. Scale bar, 20 μm. I Quantification of the RGC survival rate in (H) (Mann–Whitney test, n = 6 mice in each group, at least eight non-adjacent retinal sections were analyzed for each mouse). Data are presented as the mean ± SEM. **p < 0.01,***p < 0.001, ****p < 0.0001. ns, not significant.