Figure 7. Epithelial-specific gene expression is increased in the differentiated ARPE-19 cells. ARPE-19 cells grown for either 4 days or 4 months were used for total RNA and protein extractions. The samples were then used for real-time quantitative PCR and western blotting, respectively, as described in the Methods section. A: Real-time PCR analysis of epithelial- and mesenchymal-specific mRNA expression. The values are mean ± standard deviation (SD), n = 4. *p<0.001 compared with control. B: Western blot analysis of the expression of the epithelial- and mesenchymal-specific proteins. α-Tubulin expression shows that the amount of protein used in different samples is similar.