Enrichment of Retinal Ganglion Cells in Rat Retinal Lysate by Excimer Laser Ablation of the Outer Retina

PURPOSE. Retinal ganglion cells (RGC) are a relatively small cell population in the retina. This leads to an unfavorable signal-tonoise ratio when analyzing RGC proteins in whole retina lysate. We present a novel technique to obtain RGC-enriched rat retinal lysate by removing the outer retinal layers with an excimer laser before lysation. METHODS. Outer retinal layers were ablated with an excimer laser on flat mounted retinas from adult albino rats. 4 0 6Diamidino-2-phenylindole dihydrochloride hydrate (DAPI) nuclear staining was used to assess the ablation efficacy (n ! 6). Western blot for layer specific markers (rhodopsin, parvalbumin, b-III-tubulin) was performed to quantify changes in …