Figure 12. Analysis of β-catenin and VEGF in SB216763-treated normal bovine lens epithelial cells. A: Normal bovine lens epithelial cells at passage 2 were used for this experiment. To rule out cross-contamination between the cytoplasmic and nuclear fractions, the cytoplasmic markers GAPDH and LDH were used. The levels of β-catenin and phospho-β-catenin in the cytoplasmic extracts were unchanged, whereas in the nuclear extracts there was a significant increase in β-catenin and decrease in phospho-β-catenin in the SB216763-treated cells as compared with the controls. There was no significant carryover of the cytoplasmic markers in the nuclear fractions. This experiment was performed one time. B: Supernatants from three independent cell populations derived from a single cell passage and analyzed by ELISA to detect levels of VEGF. The asterisk (*) indicates a statistically significant (p<0.05) increase in the levels of VEGF in SB216763-treated cells at both 3- and 8-h time points as compared to the control cells. SB=SB216763. C: The experiment was repeated three times using independent cell populations stemming from a single cell passage. The normalized lysates were analyzed for levels of fibronectin using ImageJ analysis. There was a significant increase in the expression of fibronectin in the SB216763-treated samples as compared to the corresponding control samples treated with DMSO (p<0.05).