Fig. 3

Expression landscapes at transcript and protein level of purified retinal Müller cells isolated from diabetic mice 6 months of age hint towards metabolic changes and altered growth factor signalling. A Left, Differentially expressed genes of Müller cells isolated from 6-month-old db/db mice compared to controls (p < 0.05; at least twofold difference), which additionally showed Müller cell specificity (p < 0.05 compared to expression in neurons; at least twofold difference is plotted in the heatmap). The heatmap includes three biological replicates per genotype to illustrate the degree of heterogeneity in gene expression within each genotype. Right, GO molecular functions (based on fold enrichment, at least twofold) of significantly up- or down-regulated genes in Müller cells from 6-month-old db/db mice as determined by pathway enrichment analysis using PANTHER. B Left, filtering (p < 0.05; at least twofold difference) was performed to identify proteins differentially regulated in Müller cells from 6-month-old diabetic mice. Data from 4 biological replicates per genotype are plotted. Right, molecular functions driven by proteins significantly down- or up-regulated in Müller cells from 6-month-old db/db mice determined by pathway enrichment analysis using PANTHER. C Transcript and protein expression of select candidate genes central to the pathways as identified from differentially expressed Müller cell-specific transcripts shown in A are plotted across all cell types to illustrate Müller cell-specificity of the diabetes associated gene expression. Bars represent the mean ± SEM of three biological replicates per genotype for RNA-seq data and 4 biological replicates per genotype for protein abundances, respectively. Unpaired t-test: *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01. D Transcript and protein expression of select candidate genes central to the pathways as identified on the proteome profiles shown in B are plotted across all cell types to illustrate Müller cell-specificity of the diabetes associated gene expression change. Bars represent the mean ± SEM of three biological replicates per genotype for RNA-seq data and 4 biological replicates for protein expression. Unpaired t-test: *p < 0.05. C, D mg, microglia; vc, vascular cells; Mc, Müller cells; n, neurons