Figure 5. Protein levels of αA-crystalline and αB-crystallin. A: western blot of protein samples (60 mg) prepared from the normal and Dex-exposed lenses. The blots were probed with anti-αA-crystallin monoclonal antibodies. B: Blots probed with anti-αB-crystallin polyclonal antibodies FL-175. The approximate sizes of αA-crystallin and αB-crystallin are 20 kDa and 23.5 kDa, respectively. Imaging as described above, and densitometric scans for blot analysis were performed using NIH Image (ver.1.63) with values normalized to the β-actin signal for each sample and expressed as multiples of increase (or decrease) relative to control samples. The expression of αA- and αB- crystallin were significantly increased when lenses were exposed to 1 µM and 10 µM Dex (p<0.05, n=3). The expression of αA-crystallin was significantly decreased when lenses were exposed to 100 µM Dex (densitometric scans of blots were decreased; p<0.05, n=3). Data are the means of three western blot experiments, each performed in triplicate, and the pictures are representative.