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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2010 Feb 1.
Published in final edited form as: Exp Eye Res. 2008 Oct 4;88(2):293–306. doi: 10.1016/j.exer.2008.08.023

Figure 4.

Figure 4

U0126 blocks FGF- and vitreous- induced lens fibre differentiation. (i) Representative western blots of explants exposed to no FGF (lane 1) or 100 ng/ml of FGF for 20 min (lanes 2 and 3), 6 h (lane 4) and 24 h (lane 5), in the absence (lanes 1 and 2) or presence of U0126 (lanes 3, 4 and 5), assayed for phosphorylated ERK1/2 (upper panel) or total ERK1/2 (lower panel). (ii) Representative western blots of explants exposed to no vitreous (lane 1) or 50% vitreous for 20 min (lanes 2 and 3), 6 h (lane 4) and 24 h (lane 5), in the absence (lanes 1 and 2) or presence of U0126 (lanes 3, 4 and 5), assayed for phosphorylated ERK1/2 (upper panel) or total ERK1/2 (lower panel). (iii) U0126 blocks FGF- and vitreous-induced cell elongation, but not β- and γ-crystallin expression. Representative micrographs of cells in lens explants not exposed to growth factors (A, D, G, J) or exposed to 100 ng/ml of FGF (B, E, H, K) or 50% vitreous (C, F, I, L) in the presence of U0126, immunofluorescently labelled for β-crystallin (D–F), γ-crystallin (J–L) or counterstained with Hoechst dye (A–C, G–I). After 5 (A–F) or 10 (G–L) days culture, cell elongation was blocked in the presence of U0126, however, expression of β- and γ-crystallins was not blocked (E, F, K, L). All representative data was taken from experiments undertaken at least three times. Scale bar, 50μm.