[Retracted] An Immunohistochemical Study of the Increase in Antioxidant Capacity of Corneal Epithelial Cells by Molecular Hydrogen, Leading to the Suppression of Alkali-Induced Oxidative Stress

Figure 4

The expression of malonaldehyde (MDA), nitrotyrosine (NT), inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), and matrix metalloproteinase 9 (MMP9) is high in alkali-injured corneas of buffer-pretreated eyes. The animals were euthanized at the end of experiments, and the corneas examined. MDA, NT, iNOS, VEGF, and MMP9 are expressed in cells of the corneal epithelium and corneal stroma and in cells that invaded the corneal stroma (white arrows) of alkali-injured buffer-pretreated eyes (b, e, h, k, n), whereas in the alkali-injured corneas of H₂-pretreated eyes (c, f, i, l, o), the expressions of individual markers are almost absent. The alkali-injured corneas of buffer-pretreated eyes are vascularized (black arrows, N). Scale bars: 50 μm.