Fig. 4

Morphology of cornea after UV irradiation upon treatment with SkQ1. Representative microscopic images of hematoxylin and eosin staining of normal rabbit cornea (a) or rabbit corneas after irradiation with 312 nm UV light (halogen lamp, 8 W) for 4 days, 20 min per day (b-i). Corneas without treatment on the 1st (b), 3rd (c), 7th (d) and 30th (e) day after the last irradiation session. Corneas treated with daily instillations of 7.5 μM SkQ1 on the 1st (f), 3rd (g), 7th (h) and 30the (i) day after the last irradiation session. Ep - corneal epithelium (if the designation Ep is absent, a complete loss of corneal epithelium is observed in preparation), Str - stroma, DM - Descemet’s membrane. Pyknotic changes (apoptosis) in keratocytes are shown by black arrows. Granulocytic infiltration in stroma and anterior eye chamber is shown by red arrows. Green arrows are for activated collagen-synthesizing keratocytes. Due to abundance of pyknotic nuclei, granulocytes and activated keratocytes in corresponding slides, not every one of them is labeled. Magnification ✕200, scale bar 100 μm