Figure 3. A: Apoptotic morphology of human lens epithelial cells after dexamethasone exposure. Cells that were exposed to dexamethasone exhibited morphologic changes typical of apoptosis such as shrinkage, chromatin condensation, and nuclear fragmentation (II and III). Cultured human lens epithelial cells are shown stained with the nuclear dye Hoechst 33342. Control cells (I) and cells exposed to 1 µM (II) and 100 µM (III) dexamethasone are shown. Original magnification 600X. B: Showing increased number of apoptotic cells after dexamethasone exposure. Human lens epithelial cells were exposed to dexamethasone at different concentrations during 24 hs after which the cell nuclei were stained with Hoechst 33342. The percentage of apoptotic cells increased in a dose-dependent manner with higher dexamethasone concentrations. At least 300 cells from three different chamber slides were counted. Mean ±SEM are given; the asterisk indicates a p<0.05 and the double asterisk indicates a p<0.01. C: Increased Caspase-3 activity after incubation with dexamethasone. The caspase-3 activity in cultured human lens epithelial cells was significantly increased after the administration of 100 µM dexamethasone for 24 h. A representative experimental run from three experiments with similar results is shown. Caspase-3 activity is expressed as relative fluorescence units per second and gram protein (RFU s⁻¹g⁻¹). Mean ±SEM from 3 separate culture wells are shown; the double asterisk indicates a p<0.01.