Mouse Epo does not stimulate angiogenesis in the rat cornea. Nylon disks coated with rMsEpo at 3 different concentrations (500, 150, or 50 μg/mL; peptide mass equivalent to 100 000, 30 000, or 10 000 U/mL rHuEpo) were implanted into the corneal stroma of rats (n = 8/group). Disks coated with vehicle (PBS + 0.1% BSA) or 420 ng/μL of rHuVEGF were used as negative and positive controls, respectively. Seven days later, the angiogenic response was evaluated from digital images of each cornea. (A) Representative images from each treatment group are shown. Scale bar in the right panel (yellow) represents 0.5 mm. (B) Quantitative measures of angiogenesis. Two vascular endpoints were evaluated: the number of blood vessels that intersect the midpoint between the disk and the limbus (left panel), and the blood vessel area (right panel). Data represent mean ± SEM. *P < .001 vs vehicle control (analysis of variance with Fisher post hoc test). Experiment was repeated with similar results.