Tissue specimen of 9 month old (middle-aged) Wistar rat retina illustrates connexin expression in astrocytes in the mid-peripheral retina.

Six-marker immunohistochemistry was executed on retinal wholemount preparations. Connexin 26 (blue, Alexa Fluor^® 532-conjugated anti-goat IgG), Connexin 30 (red, Cy3-conjugated anti-rabbit IgG), Connexin 43 (green, Alexa Fluor^® 488-conjugated mouse IgG1), Connexin 45 (pale brown, Alexa Fluor^® 594-conjugated anti-sheep IgG), GFAP stained for astrocytes (pale purple, Cy5-conjugated anti-chicken IgY), GS Isolectin B4 stained for blood vessels (turquoise, AMCA-conjugated streptavidin). Equipment used:
Carl Zeiss LSM 510 META inverted confocal microscope equipped with UV-Argon laser scanning, Axiovert 200M and LSM 510 scan head. The objective lens used was a Plan-Apochromat 63x/1.40 Oil DIC M27 and excitation laser lines (405, 488, 561 and 633 nm). Image captured of optical z-series projection, resolution of 1024 x 1024, and data depth of 12.