Figure 3 of Chamberlain, Mol Vis 2008; 14:983-991.


Figure 3. Effects of L-NAME, TGFβ, and SNP on the morphology of lens epithelial explants. Explants were cultured for five days with the NOS inhibitor L-NAME (A), for two days with 50 pg/ml TGFβ2 (B), or for nine days in the control medium (C) or control medium supplemented with the NO donor SNP (D) and then photographed by phase contrast microscopy. In explants cultured with L-NAME (A), large regions of smooth lens capsule were visible (denoted by an asterisk) between strands of cells and clusters of bright, detached cells, and cells abutting the capsule showed cell-surface blebbing (arrowheads). In explants cultured with TGFβ for two days (B) and sparsely covered explants cultured in control medium without SNP for nine days (C), progressive cell loss was accompanied by extensive cell-surface blebbing (arrowheads), and exposed regions of the lens capsule (denoted by an asterisk) exhibited wrinkling (arrow). A corresponding explant cultured with SNP (D) became well covered with a monolayer of cells in the cobblestone array typical of the normal lens epithelium. The bar represents 80 μm in A and 100 μm in B-D. NAME stands for Nω-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester; TGF stands for transforming growth factor; and SNP stands for sodium nitroprusside.