Figure 6

withdrawal of LIF does not recover neurosphere generation in CD133 ⁺ retinal cells to optimum levels. Following the observation that LIF in the culture medium prevented CD133⁺ retinal cells from generating neurospheres, LIF was removed after 3 days (see methods) by spinning down the cells and the medium was replaced with FGF2/N2 which was found previously to have a significant effect on neurosphere generation (Fig 4). After 1 week in culture with FGF2/N2 neurosphere generation increased significantly – †Primary P < 0.02 (n = 10) * CD133⁺ P < 0.03 (n = 10). After 2 weeks in culture CD133⁺ retinal cells were found to show a significant difference in neurosphere generation/100000 cells at 1 week §P < 0.02. CD133⁺ retinal cells generated a significant number of neurospheres/100000 cells when compared to primary cultures at 2 weeks ‡ P < 0.04.