Fig. 3

Choline acetyltransferase (ChAT; red) immunohistochemistry. Amacrine cell bodies (short arrows) were located in the INLs and ganglion cell layers of the retinas subjected to the sham procedure (Group 1) for 1 day (a; sham 1 day) and 7 days (f; sham 7 day); the neuronal processes displayed two well-delineated bands (long arrows) in the inner plexiform layer (IPL). Retinal ischemia plus reperfusion (I/R) for 1 or 7 days led to a considerable reduction in the ChAT immunolabeling of the IPLs as well as the number of ChAT immunolabeled amacrine cell bodies; the pretreatment with the vehicle had no influence on the defined ischemic changes [Group 2; on I/R day 1, (b) on I/R day 7, (g)]. However, these ischemic alterations were clearly alleviated after pretreating the rats with 2.8 g/kg/day [Group 3; on I/R day 1, (c); on I/R day 7, (h)] and 4.2 g/kg/day of CJDHW [Group 4; on I/R day 1, (d); on I/R day 7, (i)]. The ChAT immunolabeled images were merged with those obtained for 4,6-diamidine-2-phenylindole dihydrochloride staining [DAPI blue; (a–d, f–i)]. Each bar represents the mean ± SD (n = 6) 1 day (e) and 7 days following the sham procedure or I/R (j). *represents significance (P < 0.05; Group 1 vs. 2 on I/R day 1 or 7). ^†represents significance (P < 0.05; Group 2 vs. 3 or Group 4 on I/R day 1 or 7). CJDHW Chi-Ju-Di-Huang-Wan. Scale bar = 35 μm