Figure 5. α-Smooth muscle actin protein expression

A total of 12 lens epithelial explants from each of the eight treatment groups were used for western blot analysis of α-SMA (42 kDa) protein expression. Control (lanes 1 and 2), FGF-2 (lanes 3 and 4), TGF-β2 (lanes 5 and 6), and TGF-β2/FGF-2 (lanes 7 and 8) lens epithelial explants under normal conditions (lanes 1, 3, 5, and 7) and after heat shocked treatment (lanes 2, 4, 6, and 8) are shown. β-Actin (42 kDa) protein expression serves as an internal control and is used to normalize the protein band intensity. The bar graph represents the α-SMA protein expression (percent of normal control; ±SEM) for control, FGF-2, TGF-β2, and TGF-β2/FGF-2 treated lens epithelial explant extracts from normal culture and heat shocked conditions. Statistical analysis (ANOVA: p is less than or equal to 0.05) shows that there is a significant treatment effect. The heat shocked control (55.7%±5.6%) and FGF-2 (normal, 6.7%±3.5%; heat shocked, 1.4%±0.7%) epithelial explants show significantly lower levels of α-SMA protein expression compared to the normal control (100%) epithelial explants (marked with the "+" sign). Treatment with TGF-β2 (normal, 255.2%±3.3%; heat shocked, 170.0%±8.4%) and TGF-β2/FGF-2 (normal, 363.0%±4.8%; heat shocked, 293.4%±2.3%) demonstrate a significant increase of α-SMA protein expression with the greatest increase of α-SMA expression in the TGF-β2/FGF-2 explants (marked with a black dot). The asterisk indicates that the α-SMA expression of heat shocked TGF-β2 and TGF-β2/FGF-2 explants are significantly lower than the same treatment groups under normal culture conditions.