Chitosan Oligosaccharides Attenuate Ocular Inflammation in Rats with Experimental Autoimmune Anterior Uveitis
Figure 4
The evaluation of the expression levels of (a) TNF-α, (b) iNOS, (c) MCP-1, (d) RANTES, (e) fractalkine, and (f) ICAM-1 in the ICB at day 14 using IHC. For quantitation of immunostaining, we first determined the immunostaining index, which could be measured and calculated from the following formula: ∑[(immunostaining density − threshold) × area (pixels)]/total cell number. The relative density of immunostaining was defined as immunostaining index of PBS-treated, low-dose, or high-dose COS groups divided by immunostaining index of normal group. Treatment with low-dose or high-dose COS significantly decreased relative density of TNF-α, iNOS, MCP-1, RANTES, fractalkine, and ICAM-1 in the ICB, when compared with the PBS-treated group. The effects of decreased inflammatory mediators in the ICB were more noticeable in the high-dose COS group than in the low-dose group. There was little variation between the eyes in the same group. Original magnification 100x (∗ compared with the PBS-treated group; # compared with the normal group; & compared with the low-dose group by Kruskal-Wallis test with post hoc Dunn test; for each group).
